Motorway service station Moto Hospitality Ltd has launched a High Court challenge to Leeds City Councils plans for a new service station on the proposed M1/A1 link.
Moto has asked the court to quash part of the council’s unitary development plan (UDP) containing proposals to build the service station on land at Skelton Grange, on the basis that the council’s plans would threaten its two pending planning applications for rival sites.
Moto claims that the council’s plans contravene recent government policy, which requires exceptional circumstances for the grant of permission for new stations within a 30-mile radius of existing ones.
It claims that the government inspector who considered the UDP, and gave his recommendations to the council in February 1999, had failed to take into account the new policy issued by the then minister for roads, Lord Whitty. Instead, it claims that he relied upon previous policy, which set the limit at only 15 miles.
Moto Hospitality Ltd v Leeds City Council and others Queen’s Bench Division (Sullivan J) 26 February 2002.
PLS News 27/02/02
