Fresh Court Action Filed Against Council Over Consent For 473-Home Ryde Development

A residents’ group is again taking the Isle of Wight Council to court over planning permission for hundreds of homes at West Acre Park in Ryde.

Greenfields (IOW) Ltd has filed legal action over County Hall’s consent for a 473-home development from Captiva Homes, claiming it is illegal, with concern over a lack of infrastructure and insufficient funds to complete necessary work still centre stage.

In September 2025, the council’s planning committee conditionally approved Captiva Homes’s revised West Acre Park project which includes commercial space, a doctor’s surgery and a café.

Before councillors made the decision, a committee report cited the ‘benefits associated with the delivery of housing, the creation of jobs, the provision of land for a new doctors’ surgery and the provision of public accessible areas of open space’.

Greenfields’ latest action comes after a previous court battle which reached the Court of Appeal and resulted in the quashing of a prior planning permission for development at West Acre Park.

Cllr Michael Lilley, Liberal Democrat representative for Ryde Appley and Elmfield, said:

“There have always been major concerns with the lack of road infrastructure with the West Acre Park application.

"I highlighted this to the planning committee at the meeting on September 30.

“You have a major housing development which would be the largest such development on the whole Island in an area of increasing traffic, without proper road infrastructure planned or the money to pay for it.

“The Isle of Wight Council has spent to date fighting the Ryde Appley and Elmfield residents to the admitted tune of £150,000 excluding officer time (a case they lost), and now plan to spend further taxpayers’ money to defend a case due to continued flaws in the process.

"This is simply unacceptable.”

An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson said:

“The council on Tuesday received notification from Greenfields (IOW) Ltd that a claim has been made against the council.

"It will now need to carefully consider the claim and what its response will be.”

Responding to the fresh action, Captiva Homes’s CEO Iain Delaney said:

“We respect and empathise with community concerns around sustainability and impact on infrastructure arising from development and can only reiterate our commitment to make positive contributions in both areas.

“Our plans include: gifting of land to the NHS for a required Ryde health hub, a 12-hectare country park, fully funded highways junction upgrades, biodiversity net gain uplift and improved sustainable transport links.

“West Acre Park planning approval has now been granted locally on three separate occasions and has been reviewed at the High Court and Court of Appeal.

“The council’s failure to publish the final Section 106 agreement prior to the previous granting of permission has now been addressed, consent has been lawfully reissued, and we remain fully committed to starting work on site with the minimum delay and to delivering desperately needed homes for Islanders.”