LOCAL campaigners say it has come as “no surprise” after Satnam Millennium were identified as the challengers to Warrington Borough Council’s adopted Local Plan.
The challenge has come after Warrington Borough Council adopted its 2021-2039 local plan in December last year, with a request for a judicial review of the document issued by Brooklyn Ltd the following month – putting the brakes on the Six56 public inquiry.
Wendy Johnson-Taylor from the Peel Hall Campaign Group said: “It comes as no surprise to me to find that an outfit like Satnam is attempting to haul Warrington Borough Council over the coals regarding the dire consultation process of the Local Plan. It was not fit for purpose, Peel Hall campaigners and our Winwick counterparts complained bitterly about this at the Local Plan Inquiry. It fell on deaf ears. It appears that our council, local ward councillors and planning chiefs have learned nothing from this as their recent consultation sessions, held jointly with Peel Hall’s developer, were nothing but farcical and were carried out with no thought about all the communities that are going to be impacted by this major development. It’s no surprise to me that WBC finds itself in hot water over the same issue.”
Meanwhile, Stuart Mann from Winwick added: “We attended the local plan hearing and clearly highlighted that the engagement process for the local plan was very poor a fact that was again raised as a concern in relation to the Golborne road development when a request for better WBC engagement, and hard copies of plans for the none digital residents, was declined.”
While Brooklyn Ltd is the named party on the legal challenge, strategic land promoter Satnam Millennium is behind the case and has appointed Landmark Chambers barrister Neil Cameron KC to represent the company before the court.
Kings Chambers’ barrister Paul Tucker KC is acting for Warrington Council.
According to Place Northwest its understood that the judicial review request is centred around whether or not the local authority conducted enough consultation prior to adopting the document.
The High Court is currently examining Satnam’s request to determine whether or not it should be given a full hearing.
Satnam and Brooklyn have together lodged at least two written statements against the local plan during the examination process.
In September 2021 it was stated that the local plan failed to meet housing needs by not allocating land at Clay Lane in Burtonwood for a minimum of 250 homes and by not removing that land from Green Belt. That same written statement also took umbrage at the inclusion of Fiddler’s Ferry as a housing site – noting that it would require major infrastructure and would not be capable of delivering the number of homes allocated to it during the local plan’s timescales.
The objection to Fiddlers Ferry’s inclusion continued in a letter a year later, with Satnam writing that the proposed timeline for delivering the housings for Fiddlers Ferry was “overly optimistic to the point of being unrealistic”.
Satnam has a history of challenging local plans in Warrington. Satnam also won a High Court over affordable housing not properly being factored into the housing provision and that Warrington Borough Council had failed to carry out enough strategic environmental assessments of strategic sites.
At the time, the council was ordered to pay Satnam’s legal fees of £84,000. Satnam later went on to sell the 170-acre Peel Hall site to Countryside Partnerships and Torus Developments for more than £100m.
A Warrington Borough Council spokesperson said: “We can confirm a challenge has been made to our newly adopted Local Plan. The Council is confident that the adopted Local Plan is fully legally compliant, and we will be rigorously contesting this challenge.”
First Peel Hall consultations slammed as “shambolic mess” by campaigners
2 Comments
Usual word salad served up by our Labour council : “The Council is confident that the adopted Local Plan is fully legally compliant, and we will be rigorously contesting this challenge.” Fully compliant with their and their developer mates wishes, but not those of the local communities. When are WBC going to begin to listen to hear what the people of Warrington want, those whose votes they seek at every election and then disregard until the next.
WBC are only interested in getting the money in because of the 2 billion pounds debt they have caused to the residents of Warrington.