The Minutes of The Meeting

March

29

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by admin // in North of London Road

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For those who are interested in the “North of London Road” application, the agenda and the minutes of the big meeting where it was refused can be found here

Here are the reasons for refusal (double-click to enlarge):

reasons for refusal

These are the only reasons for that can be argued at the appeal – you can’t add other ones in afterwards. If an inspector thinks any of these are unreasonable, he can award costs against the council.

Though the decision about costs is separate from the decision about approval. As with any appeal involving several reasons, there are basically four possible outcomes:-

  • The inspector agrees with the refusal and thinks all the reasons are reasonable, so does not award any costs.
  • The inspector agrees with the refusal because he thinks some of the reasons are reasonable, but thinks some of the other reasons are very weak and so grants some costs against the council anyway
  • The inspector agrees with the developers and gives permission, but even so he thinks all 4 reasons were worth arguing, so does not award costs.
  • The inspector agrees with the developers and gives permission, thinks some or all of the reasons are weak, so awards costs against the council.
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    About the author, admin

  • Just to be helpful……………

    As stated above when it comes down to it the only points of reference the Appeal Inspector will have is the Decision Notice stating the Reasons for Refusal put forward by Ward Councillors.

    As you have probably noticed from Officer Planning Reports is that the opinion/decision of expert authorities is obtained from what are often referred to as Statutory Consultees.

    The only evidence that the Council can fall back on in an Appeal is this evidence. The Council will not go to third party expert witnesses. But the Appellant will and call experts who will present their evidence through a Proof of Evidence and the Appellant’s Barrister will lead them through it. The same will happen with the expert witnesses which the Council may call but they will be cross examined by the Appellant’s Barrister.

    So let us see who the Council would call.

    1. Sport England
    2. Essex County Council / Anglian Water/ Environment Agency
    3. Essex County Council Highways
    4. Essex County Council as Education Authority

    But note that they have already given their opinions and guidance in the Officer Report which recommended Approval. (Sport England gave a clear objection.)

    Did Mark Francois or any Councillor provide any other tangible/written evidence to support any of 1 to 4?

    I do hope this helps explain the way that this might be looked at in entirely objective terms which is the way that Barristers and Planning Inspectors will.

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