Westminster council have been ordered to pay more than £100,000 towards the cost of repairing a highway supporting two privately owned offices at London’s Victoria station.
This week, three appeal judges upheld a High Court ruling in February that the council should pay 90% of the £119,000 repair costs because the deterioration of the highway was largely due to public traffic.
The repairs will cover the cost of maintaining the highway, known as Bulleid Way, SW1, and repairing an underlying structural raft that also supports the six-storey offices at 123 and 151 Buckingham Palace Road.
During a 1999 inspection, Fountain & Colonnade Management (F&C), which leases the offices, discovered that joints allowing the structure to expand and contract with temperature variation were in a “poor state”, permitting rainwater to leak onto the station tracks below.
After the company was forced to pay out £119,261 for the repair works in 2003, it sought a “fair proportion” from the council.
Upholding the lower court’s award, Sir Mark Potter accepted evidence that the majority of the damage was attributable to the high frequency of buses and coaches using Bulleid Way in order to drop off and collect passengers.
He said that F&C should not be forced to bear the costs.
F&C took over a lease of the buildings from previous tenant Greycoat Victoria, which was granted a 250-year lease by the British Railways Board in 1991.
References: EGi News 21/12/05
