Permission for wharf scheme quashed over failure to consult on amendments

A judge has quashed planning permission given by the London Borough of Hackney for a major redevelopment on the Regent’s Canal.

Deputy High Court judge John Howell QC said in Holborn Studios Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v London Borough of Hackney [2017] EWHC 2823 that the council acted unlawfully by failing to consult again when amendments were made to a planning application.

Photographic business Holborn Studios, which runs the largest photographic studio complex in Europe on the site, said that, unfairly and unreasonably, neither it nor the public were notified of, or consulted on, the amendments and Hackney unfairly failed to adjourn consideration to allow it to respond.

It also said the council had unfairly failed to disclose two unredacted letters on which officers had relied to say the amended proposed accommodation in the redevelopment would be acceptable for Holborn Studios.

Claim for judicial review was also brought by Del Brenner, secretary of amenity group the Regents Network, that Hackney’s planning sub-committee failed to take into account policies relating to the ‘Blue Ribbon Network’ of waterways.

Hackney contended there was no requirement for consultation about the amendments as judging whether they involved a substantial or fundamental difference was a matter for the local planning authority.

The judge said officers appeared to have assumed there was no need to re-consult because in their view the changes proposed were positive and would not cause any significant adverse impact.

“But that was not the right question nor an answer to it,” he said. “The question they needed to consider was whether, without re-consultation, any of those who were entitled to be consulted on the application would be deprived of the opportunity to make any representations that they may have wanted to make on the application as amended.”

It did not follow that no-one might take a contrary view simply because the officers involved welcomed the changes.

Judge Howell said: “The procedure followed in relation to the amendments…deprived the claimants and others of a fair opportunity to make such representations as they might have wanted to make about them and that materially prejudiced the claimants. The procedure followed in the circumstances was so unfair as to be unlawful.”

He said the council’s failure to allow Holborn Studios to inspect the two unredacted letters “substantially prejudiced Holborn Studios and was unfair and unlawful”.

But the judge dismissed Mr Brenner’s case, saying there was “no challenge to the merits of the judgments made by officers or by members on such issues given the information available to them”.

A Hackney spokesperson said: “The planning application for the redevelopment of Holborn Studios was given a resolution for approval at planning committee as it satisfied all policies in the council’s development plan.

“The judicial review was upheld on procedural grounds and we accept the ruling.”

Mark Smulian