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Mr Justice Lewis has today refused Rachel Locke, a member of Save Newcastle Wildlife, permission to bring a claim for judicial review of Newcastle City Council’s decision to grant the Newcastle Great Park Consortium, a joint venture between Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey, planning permission for a 1200 dwelling residential-led mixed use development at Newcastle Great Park. The planning permission was recently included in Planning Magazine’s list of the biggest residential planning permissions of 2019. The grounds of claim related to the increase from the 800 dwelling figure mentioned in the allocation of the site under Policy NN4 of the Council’s Core Strategy, to the 1200 dwellings that were consented, and the consequential displacement of the playing fields required as part of the development onto adjacent Green Belt land. The Claimant alleged that the Council had erred in law in concluding that, despite this, the proposed development was in accordance with Policy NN4 and/or had erred in concluding that the playing fields were appropriate development in the Green Belt. Paul Brown QC appeared for the Claimant, Rachel Locke, instructed by Temple Bright LLP (Kate Olley also acted for the Claimant at the paper stage of the JR permission application). Richard Moules appeared for the Defendant, Newcastle City Council, instructed by the Council’s Legal Department (Matthew Reed QC also acted for the Council at the paper stage). Charles Banner QC appeared for the Interested Parties, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon, instructed by Richard Sagar of Walker Morris LLP (Matthew Fraser also acted for the IPs at the paper stage).
