A high court judge has dismissed allegations made by Derwent Holdings that
However, Mr Justice Collins went on to criticise
Accordingly, he made a declaration that the TRO procedure had not been complied with and Derwent, which is owned by Isle of Man-based tycoon Albert Gubay, must be allowed to apply to the council to modify the order.
Derwent claimed the TRO cut off access, thwarted a redevelopment scheme and put businesses in jeopardy at the retail park.
The council denied bad faith and claimed that the purpose of the order, made on the application of Liverpool Land Development Company, was to create an urban boulevard into the centre of
Mr Justice Collins said there had been a failure to give adequate notice to Bermuda-based Derwent, its
The judge ruled: “Since I have concluded that the defendant council was at fault, it must consider properly an application to modify [the TRO] on its merits and must bear the cost of any modifications which would have resulted had the objections been made at the material time.”
Rejecting Derwent’s claim that there had been “bad faith” on the part of the council, Mr Justice Collins said: “It seems clear to me that those responsible were concerned to do as little as they could to comply with the law.
“The hope was that no objections would be made to delay the TRO and so the improvement of
