Plans to split the car parks of a new Asda superstore and a Gala bingo hall in the Brade Drive District Centre, Coventry, are to be reconsidered by the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
The Secretary of State’s earlier refusal of the plan has been quashed by the High Court after he conceded that his inspector had made a mistake.
The Secretary of State had rejected the plans, launched by Asda Stores Ltd, to split the two car parks and restore access to the bingo hall through Lismore Croft, finding that it was safer, in traffic terms, for the bingo customers to continue driving through the Asda car park to get to the bingo hall.
He also found that retaining the unified car parks would better integrate the centre and protect its community function, as envisioned in the January 2001 planning permission that gave rise to the current parking scheme. He found that segregation was “rightly seen by Coventry City Council as a retrograde step”.
In a “consent order” put before the High Court, he has now conceded that his planning inspector, in reaching these recommendations, proceeded on the “mistaken basis” that a policy in the Coventry development plan was the same as a second policy in the City of Coventry unitary development plan.
Accordingly, Sullivan J has made an order that, in these circumstances, the matter should be returned to the Secretary of State for reconsideration.
PLS News 8/5/02
