Wrexham Council local development plan dispute sparks campaigners’ demands for report withdrawal

The dispute over the Local Development Plan has reignited locally with campaigners demanding a report be pulled from Wrexham Council’s website.

Yesterday’s article noting that a council report has entered the public domain regarding the impending Court of Appeal hearing into arguments about the adaptation of the Local Development Plan has prompted a firm response from the campaigners taking the case forward.

The article detailed the council legal officer’s update report sent to all councillors, with a narrative on the current situation, which has now been made public as an information report PDF ahead of the Executive Board meeting on Tuesday.

However, the campaigning group have said in their own update to all councillors – also sent to the council’s legal officer by the group’s solicitors – that it contained ‘significant omissions’ and therefore was a ‘unbalanced’ and ‘misleading’ report.

Several paragraphs of ‘facts’ are also provided, detailed below:

After a majority of Councillors voted twice to reject the LDP, a consortium of seven large housing developers took the Council to Judicial Review. Following the hearing, Mr Justice Eyre imposed an adverse costs award of £100,000 against the Council, a sum that was not contested as far as we are aware.

Thereafter, citing the Eyre judgment and under threat of imprisonment and financial sanctions, officers noticed a further Council meeting in December 2023 to again progress the plan adoption, and a minority of councillors voted to adopt the LDP. The remainder either abstained or refused to take part in the vote as a protest. Councillors representing the majority of Councillors sought independent legal advice and were advised that there were grounds to challenge the decisions of Mr Justice Eyre and the December adoption decision. Cllr Marc Jones commenced proceedings in the Planning Court to quash the adoption and he separately lodged an appeal in the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment of Mr Justice Eyre.

A hearing on 15-16 October in the Court of Appeal follows the decision of Lord Justice Lewison that Mr Jones’ case has a real prospect of success and raises an important point of principle. The Lord Justice’s permission order records:

“I am satisfied that, for the reasons stated in the Grounds of Appeal the proposed appeal (a) has a real prospect of success and (b) raises an important point of principle.”

Thereafter on 20 May 2024 Mr Justice Holgate granted permission on the s.113 challenge in the High Court to quash the LDP adoption, and that case is stayed pending the outcome in the Court of Appeal.

The update notes that if the appeal is successful, the judgment of Mr Justice Eye will be quashed “…and the High Court will then be invited to quash the Local Development Plan adoption”.

The hearing has been described as a ‘test case’, with campaigners adding, “Success in the Court of Appeal potentially has another very critical outcome – the £100,000 adverse costs imposed by Mr Justice Eyre could be set aside since the award of costs was made on the basis of the successful Developers’ judicial review”.

Yesterday we noted that the report states Cllr Marc Jones is taking on Wrexham County Borough Council, the Welsh Ministers, BDW Trading, Bloor Homes, Redrow Homes, Harworth Estates, Russell Homes, Castle Green Homes and SG Estates.

The update from campaigners stress that although one councillor is leading the appeal, it has wider support, despite the single named appellant.

We are also told that the update was provided to Wrexham Council who have been invited to remove the report before the Executive Board as it did not ‘accurately reflect facts’.

It appears Wrexham Council disagree and stand by the report, with it still active and public here as a PDF ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.