Amidst ever growing pressure for more housing in the South East, campaigners who are bitterly opposed to plans for construction of 1,400 new homes in the Hampshire countryside have been granted permission to mount a full judicial review challenge.
The proposals for a greenfield site near Eastleigh are the most ambitious seen in the area for quarter of a century. In what amounts to a new town, roads and roundabouts will be laid out and community facilities – including a primary school, a shop and 4,000 square metres of employment space – will be built.
However, in granting the Botley Parish Action Group (BPAG) permission to challenge Eastleigh Borough Council’s decision to grant outline planning consent for the scheme, a judge ruled it ‘arguable’ that members of the council’s planning committee had been ‘materially misled’ by an officer’s report.
The committee had received 300 letters of objection to the proposals, which were the biggest single element of the council’s housing strategy, making up almost a quarter of the 5,690 new homes planned to be built in the borough over the next 25 years.
However, BPAG’s lawyers argued that the decision was ‘premature’ in that a new local plan for the area had yet to be finalised when permission was granted and the relevant site had not been formally earmarked for housing development. Objectors were also convinced that an alternative site of ‘lesser environmental value’ would be a more ‘sustainable and suitable’ location for such a substantial project.
The court found it arguable that the scale of the development was so ‘exceptional’ that the committee’s members should have been advised that they were obliged to consider the suitability of alternative sites before granting consent.