The owners of Telford shopping centre (pictured) today launched a legal challenge to a planning permission for an ASDA superstore that they claim will take the retailer – and shoppers – out of the centre.
Telford Trustee No 1 and Telford Trustee No 2, the special-purpose vehicles that own the mall on behalf of Hark Apollo, are opposed to plans to build an ASDA on the site of Telford & Wrekin council’s civic offices on the edge of town.
The trustees, who have pursued and secured their own planning permission that would allow for an ASDA store to be built on the Red Oak car park, closer to the shopping centre, are asking the Court of Appeal to quash the planning permission for the council’s scheme.
They claim the council “raced through” ASDA’s application and granted it within nine weeks in January 2010, while it took nine months to grant permission for the Hark Apollo scheme.
The trustees allege the council failed in its duty to give adequate reasons for its decision to grant ASDA permission for the development.
They argue that the reasons given by the council fail to explain why it considered the proposal met national planning policy prioritising town centre development over out-of-centre sites.
Lawyers for the council argue that there was no error of law in its decision, and that it should be upheld.
The hearing is scheduled to last two days.
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