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27
Oct 2020
High Court hearing opens into Green Hammerton homes
A High Court hearing into Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to pick Green Hammerton over Flaxby for its local plan has begun today.
Mr Justice Holgate opened the judicial review case, which is being held remotely due to coronavirus.
Representing the developer, Christopher Katkowski QC set out his submission that sufficient comparisons were not made for both sites early on and that assessments did not show that the Green Hammerton site was viable.
He said that the Flaxby site was not given “equal treatment” to the council’s eventual preferred option of Green Hammerton.
Mr Katkowski said there was no “apples and apples” sustainability assessment of the sites as “broad locations” before the local plan was submitted for examination to the planning inspector.
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He told the hearing that, despite the comparison being made later, the work was carried out under officer delegation and was not put before councillors to reconsider.
He said:
Mr Katkowski also told the court that assessments in front of the inspector showed the Green Hammerton location was “marginal” in terms of viability.
He added that Oakgate, one of the promoters of the site, had submitted a confidential assessment to the council but this was not put in front of the inspector.
Mr Katkowski said it was either “perverse” that the inspector concluded that the site was viable with the information available to him or “perverse not to call for sight of the assessments to reach a properly informed judgement”.
Paul Brown QC, representing Harrogate Borough Council, said officers had delegated powers “through the examination period” up until the inspector's report was returned to the council.
Mr Brown said both the submission of the plan and the adoption were made by councillors, but delegated powers would need to be used for other decisions for practicality reasons.
He said:
Mr Brown added that planning officers considered both sites following the second comparison and other reasonable alternatives.
He said his "overarching submission" was that there was nothing unlawful in the delegation of powers to officers.
Mr Brown will continue his submission tomorrow (October 28). The hearing continues.
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