The Supreme Court has ruled against Shropshire Council after campaigners challenged the local authority’s decision to grant planning permission for a development on a plot of land wrongly sold to developers.
In 2017, Shrewsbury Town Council sold a plot of parkland at Greenfields, Shrewsbury after failing to realise the land was subject to a historic statutory trust.
Shropshire Council subsequently granted planning permission to CSE Development for a development of 15 homes on the land.
This decision was challenged by a local resident in the High Court and Court of Appeal, but was held up in both courts.
The Supreme Court then ruled it was ‘highly likely’ the outcome of the planning application would have been different had the town council carried out the proper investigatory work.
Commenting on the judgement, a spokesperson for Shropshire Council said: ‘We will study the judgement carefully, in particular what this now means for the planning application which becomes undetermined when the quashing order is made.
‘The terms of the Court Order by the Supreme Court have not been settled yet therefore we cannot comment with regard to costs.
‘In view of the unanimous decision by the Court of Appeal that the planning decision was lawful, the council felt that it had no option but to defend the appeal in the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court have come to a different view as they are entitled to do.’
