No5 barristers act as Court of Appeal refuses legal challenge to grant of planning permission for development including new synagogue

No5 barristers Chris Young QC and Howard Leithead successfully resisted a challenge to a decision by Brighton & Hove City Council to grant planning permission for a mixed-use development in Hove, including a new synagogue.

Young and Leithead acted for AGB Reading LLP, the First Interested Party, who submitted the planning application together with the Brighton & Hove Hebrew Congregation. Leithead appeared unled in the High Court oral permission hearing.

The claimant applied for permission to bring a judicial review claim, suggesting that there were alleged failures in the officer’s report to the planning committee that resolved to grant permission.

However, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court to refuse permission.

No 5 said the Court of Appeal had held that the grounds of appeal had taken isolated words and sentences from the officer’s report out of context.

It further held that the judge in the High Court was entitled to take the view that the decision would not have been different if the alleged error had not been made.

No5 Chambers said: “This challenge serves as a reminder that officers reports, in the words of the Court of Appeal’s decision, ‘must be read benevolently and as a whole, without excessive legalism and nit-picking.’”