Plans for a large retail warehouse in Carmarthen, incorporating the regions first Matalan store, have been given the green light by the High Court. A rival clothing retailer, which had had a similar application for a nearby site refused two years previously, has had its application to challenge the plans dismissed by Collins J as “sour grapes”.
The court rejected a bid by Swansea-based Richleys (Out of Town) Ltd for permission to launch a full challenge to Carmarthenshire County Councils decision to grant outline planning permission to Audley Developments Ltd, of Middlesex, for a non-food retail warehousing development at the former Highways Depot in Pensarn.
The development will consist of a 3,4842m² Matalan clothing and footwear warehouse, with a further 1,394m² of pet and office product retail.
Richleys claimed that the council were wrong to approve the planning application in July 2002, when, in January 1999, they had applied the same policies to refuse a similar application for planning consent, by Richleys, for a retail outlet selling clothes, footwear and household textiles.
Dismissing Richleys’ application, Collins J said that it had no retail interest in the area, had failed to raise its objections before the council, and had not even appealed against the councils rejection of its own application for planning permission.
“This claimant really has no interest in this, other than a feeling that can be expressed purely as sour grapes,” he said.
Although he accepted that it was “understandable that Richleys should be aggrieved”, the judge said that the council had to base their planning judgment on the merits of each separate case.
He said that a report put before the council had suggested that a Matalan store could boost the town centre by bringing shoppers in to Carmarthen, and that the development would use an unsightly brownfield site to bring 58 full-time, and 38 part-time, jobs to the area.
Application of Richleys (Out of Town) Ltd Queen’s Bench Division: Administrative Court (Collins J) 21 January 2003.
PLS News 22/01/03
