Campaigners lose £40k legal challenge against 265 homes plan

Campaigners have lost a £40k legal challenge against plans to build 265 homes and a £3.5m new link road on protected green land in Oldham.

A judge has ruled that the permission granted by the council’s planning committee last summer for the controversial Knowls Lane application will stand.

Residents in Springhead and Grotton have been fighting the hybrid planning planning application by developer Russell Homes for several years.

The council’s planning committee had initially refused the plans in November 2018, to the delight of more than 2,000 objectors.

However a second application – which was heard at an extraordinary meeting of the committee in July 2019 – was approved.

Russell Homes said the proposal would bring much-needed homes to the area as well as £11.3 million into the local economy.

The Save Our Valleys campaign group had successfully raised more than £40,000 in donations to launch a legal challenge against the decision, which took place at a virtual hearing in July.

The group were applying for a judicial review to held into the case.

At the application hearing Oldham council was the defendant, represented by the borough’s group solicitor Alan Evans, with Russell Homes represented as an interested party.

Save Our Valleys had appointed Irwin Mitchell as their legal team and Philippa Jackson presented a three-pronged argument against the planning approval.

These were that the 2019 planning report had ‘significantly misled the committee’ and that officers did not give sufficient weight to the ‘harm to the valued landscape’.

The location for 265 homes and a new link road in Saddleworth. Photo: Google maps.

It was also argued that members had ‘erred in law’ by failing to give ‘any weight’ to the less than substantial harm to the Lydgate Conservation Area as part of the planning balance.

It also claimed members of the panel had failed to consider how the development would mitigate the impacts of climate change or ‘contribute positively to the objective of moving to a low carbon economy’.

However in his written judgement, which was handed down publicly on December 18, Mr Justice Julian Knowles rejected all of the grounds of challenge.

On the landscape impact he stated: “Close and adjacent to the Wharmton Undulating Uplands the site might be, it is not within it, and the Uplands will not therefore be directly affected by the development in the same way as was concluded in 2018.

“On any view, the harm would not be direct harm in the way it would if the Uplands were themselves to be built upon.”

On the issue of the policy around Other Protected Open Land (OPOL) being out of date, and therefore having less weight according to planning officers compared to the five year housing land supply, he stated this seemed to be a ‘matter of common sense’.

“There was, it seems to me, no ‘automaticity’ in the officers’ reasoning in the manner suggested by the claimant, but that they reached the conclusion they did pursuant to a careful exercise of planning judgment that took into account all of the relevant matters,” Justice Knowles stated. “Their conclusion was not perverse.”

He stated that in both the 2018 and 2019 reports the ‘less than significant harm to heritage assets was acknowledged’.

Despite ‘attractive submissions’ he also rejected ground three, regarding the impact of climate change and the argument that planning officers had overlooked the need for an energy statement, which Justice Knowles described as ‘implausible’.

“It is scarcely credible that the council could have failed to have in mind such crucially important planning matters such as the need for sustainability, energy conservation, and mitigation of climate change,” he stated.

The plans for a new road and 265 homes off Knowls Lane in Oldham. Photo: Russell Homes. 

In his judgement Justice Knowles stated: “I fully understand that there is considerable local strength of feeling about the development, and that a lot of, if not most, local people oppose it.

“The way in which the meeting was conducted generated a large number of complaints, as explained by the claimant in his witness statement.

“A subsequent council investigation acknowledged that the decision-making process had been visibly ‘chaotic’.”

However he added that his ‘sole task’ was to rule whether the council’s decision was a lawful one, and not ‘whether the development is a good or bad idea’.

Subsequently the application for judicial review was dismissed.

In a statement to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Saddleworth West and Lees councillor Stephen Hewitt – who was named as the claimant on behalf of Save Our Valleys – said the ‘fight’ would continue.

“We are obviously disappointed with the outcome, nonetheless, as part of a long running campaign and extensive battle, the developer had a very narrow win,” he said.

“However, what this has shown is that we have people who are willing to come together and fight for a common cause and stand up for what is right for the place they have made home for now and future generations.

“We are considering several options moving forward, in the short term to appeal the decision from the judge and also exploring many more options in the longer term.

“The legal team have been incredible, the community spirit has been amazing and the committee have been unbelievable in their tenacity and bravery in facing the barriers involved fighting a legal case that was difficult to say the least and one that we all believe in.”

Watch a video of a row over the decision to grant approval for 265 homes and a new road at Knowls Lane in Oldham at the top of the page. Credit: LDRS.