Westfield’s planning approval for a 500,000 sq ft extension to its Sprucefield shopping centre in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, has been overturned.
The extension, which was to be anchored by a John Lewis department store, was the subject of a judicial review brought forward by rival developers Multiplex and Multi-Development.
The John Lewis store has been strongly opposed by developers and councils in Belfast and Lisburn since consent was granted because they claim it goes against government policy to protect town centres.
John Lewis had said Sprucefield was the only viable option for its Northern Ireland store and that it would move to Dublin if the planning consent was overturned.
Lord Rooker gave the green light to the development last year when he was Northern Ireland Environment Minister.
However, a Belfast judge has today said that Westfield’s plans were based on the prospect of the John Lewis tenancy and the terms of the planning approval were not tight enough to ensure that John Lewis would be the end user.
He also said that not enough was done in the planning process to assess the impact of the 29 other shops that would form part of the extension.
A spokesman for Westfield said that the company was considering the 70 page judgement.
He also pointed out that the judicial review related only to the political process and did not relate to the plans for the extension.
“It is not a reflection on whether the development is appropriate but whether the department acted correctly,” he said.
“Our understanding of what the judge said is that if the process had been followed correctly there is no reason to believe the decision would have been any different.”
Speaking on behalf of the main competing Lisburn shopping centre, Bow Street Mall, property consultant Michael Hopkins of McKibbin & Co said: “The decision to give such a large scale and unrestricted planning permission at Sprucefield was widely accepted as being a bad one and we are gratified that the Court’s decision has vindicated that view today.
“If we want to protect and enhance our city centres as genuine civic and retail amenities then we need to accept a decision like today’s as being in the broad public interest.”
Mervyn Shannon, Chairman of Lisburn Chamber of Commerce, co-applicants on the judicial review, added: “We are gratified and relieved that the Courts’ decision was partly based on the lack of investigation into the impact of the additional 29 retail units at the proposed site.
“We welcome John Lewis’ interest in Northern Ireland and particularly in our borough but we strongly believed that the additional 29 units would have had a severely detrimental effect on Lisburn City Centre and on that basis, we opposed this application and believe the Court’s decision today is the right one.”
