Cost To The Public Purse Of West Acre Park Court Battle Revealed

A court battle with a residents’ group over a controversial 473-home development cost the Isle of Wight Council more than £90,000, it can be revealed.

County Hall lost a Court of Appeal case with Greenfields (IOW) Ltd which led to a court order, quashing planning permission for Captiva Homes’ West Acre Park housing estate on the 200-year-old Westridge Farm in Ryde.

Greenfields was also awarded 75 per cent of its costs following Lord Justices Singh and Lewis’s 29-page judgement that allowed ground one of Greenfield’s case – the council failed to publish a section 106 planning obligation prior to its permission.

In August 2023, planners gave Westridge Village Ltd conditional permission to develop West Acre Park with 473 homes, 35 per cent of which would be ‘affordable’ according to a County Hall legal agreement with the developer.

Prior to the Court of Appeal Case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London at the beginning of last month, Greenfields appealed Judge Jarman’s dismissal of its case against the Isle of Wight Council in an Administrative Court ruling made in August last year.

A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Council said:

“The total costs (£90,435.72) include the cost of external legal advice (including barrister fess), court fees, travel and accommodation.

“The council does not routinely time record internal officer time spent on operational matters.

"The internal officer costs are therefore at best an estimate of the time spent by officers on this matter multiplied by the officer staff costs to the authority.

“Those costs are not the rates that would apply for legal services to external organisations/court claims which are higher than the staffing costs.”

County Hall has said the failure to publish a section 106 planning obligation prior to permission was a “procedural error” of the local planning authority (LPA) rather than “any one individual”.

However, a council source also told the press that the “Strategic Manager for Planning and Infrastructure Delivery is responsible for ensuring that the LPA complies with legislative requirements.”

“The council has learnt lessons from this judgement and the planning and infrastructure team, having recognised the systems error, has put in place new processes to ensure this does not occur in this future,” a spokesperson said.

“Since April 1, applications requiring a section 106 agreement must provide a draft agreement when the application is submitted.

"The draft agreement will then be available to view online as part of the planning file. A final section 106 agreement will also be published before a decision is issued.”

Captiva Homes said it remained “undeterred” and planned to press ahead with ‘much-needed’ homes with ‘minimal delay’.