A local resident has won a High Court challenge over the removal of Local Green Spaces (LGS) status for playing fields from the London Borough of Richmond’s Local Plan.
The Teddington Society and Friends of Udney Park had applied for the status for Udney Park Playing Fields, a 12.5 acre site and following consultation, the Council adopted LGS status for the fields as part of the Richmond Local Plan.
During the public examination of the Local Plan the Council defended the LGS status while Quantum, a developer looking to obtain planning permission for 107 apartments, sought to have it removed.
In his report on the examination the planning inspector recommended a main modification removing LGS status from Udney Park. Richmond considered itself bound by the report and so gave effect to the main modification when it subsequently adopted the Local Plan.
The claimant argued that the main modifications did not make it clear that they included de-designation of the site, and therefore those in favour of retaining the designation were not given a proper or real opportunity to make representations on the point at this stage of the examination.
As a result, the claimant said, they were substantially prejudiced. Had they been made aware that this was a matter to be addressed in the consultation, they could and would have submitted further evidence and arguments on the point. They said it was conceivable in this event that the outcome would have been different, ie designation would have been retained.
Neither the Council nor the Secretary of State sought to defend the claim, but Quantum sought to resist the ground of challenge arguing that the de-designation of the site as LGS was not and could not have been the subject-matter of main modifications; accordingly, the Council, in undertaking the related consultation, was not obliged to refer to it. There was therefore no procedural error in the main modifications consultation process which was the only challenge made against the council, it added.
Mr Justice Waksman upheld the claim, saying that the claimant and Friends of Udney Park had suffered sufficient substantial prejudice as a result of the procedural defects. He quashed the relevant part of the Local Plan.
Richmond Council will now hold a six-week consultation on the inspector’s decision that had removed Udney Park’s LGS status from the Local Plan.