Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second-biggest supermarket chain, can challenge plans for a £100m development in South Ruislip, London, that includes a new Asda superstore.
Mr Justice Ousley at the High Court granted the supermarket giant permission to bring a judicial review of Hillingdon council’s decision to allow the redevelopment of the site of a derelict former Arla Foods factory.
Sainsbury’s claimed the proposals were in breach of the UK’s national “town centre first” policy for retail development.
The judge said that lawyers opposed to Sainsbury’s had failed to deliver a “knock-out blow” against the supermarket and on that basis there should be a full judicial review hearing, to take place before the end of July.
If Sainsbury’s wins the judicial review the court cannot block the project, but can tell Hillingdon council to reconsider.
In December developer Citygrove was given the go-ahead for a redevelopment comprising a cinema, restaurants, houses and flats, as well as a 40,000 sq ft Asda superstore. Work was due to start last month.
During the hearing Sainsbury’s barrister, David Forsdick QC, said the council failed to take into account the damage the proposed development would do to the nearby town centre, where Sainsbury’s has a store.
Sainsbury’s plans to extend its town centre store, but only if the Asda development on the former Arla site does not take place, he said. The council was told this during the planning process, he added.
Under the “town centre first” national planning policy, the council has a duty to prioritise town centre development, and therefore should have refused to allow the Asda development, he argued.
Melissa Murphy, for Hillingdon council, said that planning officers did properly consider Sainsbury’s assertion that it would not expand its town centre store if the Asda store went ahead.
Planning officers decided that there was “a risk” of Sainsbury’s not going ahead with its proposed investment, but that “a risk of something happening is less than a likelihood”.
“What officers did was perfectly satisfactory and paid attention to the real world,” she said. “You have got no business refusing planning applications for things that are possible but not likely.”
A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “We note the Judge’s decision and look forward to a full hearing later in the year.”
The Queen on the application of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd v London Borough Of Hillingdon, Planning Court (Ousley J.) 23 April 2015