Costs for losing Shrewsbury land row in Supreme Court will be 'capped' says council

Shropshire Council says it is still waiting for an order to come through from the Supreme Court following a law lords decision to quash planning permission for 15 homes on Greenfields Recreation Ground.

The council says its position was supported by the High Court and the Court of Appeal but it lost at the highest court in the land. It says it will face paying costs but these will be subject to a cap.

But the council says that the application from CSE Developments which still owns the land off Falstaff Street is now considered as "undetermined".

Residents have stepped up their demands for an inquiry to get to the bottom of what went wrong. A leading campaigner has slammed responses from councils as "nonsense".

During the planning process they had pointed out that the land in question was held in trust which the law lords ruled was still in place despite the land being sold off.

At the council's cabinet meeting on Wednesday a senior councillor set out the council's position.

Councillor Richard Marshall, the council's portfolio holder for highways and regulatory services said: "Before selling the land, Shrewsbury Town Council should have given notice of their intention, and invited and considered any representations made.

"In the absence of compliance with that requirement, it was alleged that a trust over the land in favour of the public still existed and should have been considered before granted planning permission.

"The High Court ruled that any trust did not survive the sale to a third-party developer and unanimously upheld the grant of planning permission.

"The resident appealed to the Court of Appeal who unanimously upheld the planning permission. The Court of Appeal’s judgment was challenged by the local resident in the Supreme Court."

Crucially the Supreme Court decided that the the trust did in fact survive that sale to the developer.

Councillor Marshall added: "This means that when the order is made giving effect to that judgment, the planning permission will no longer be in existence which means that there will then be an undetermined planning application before the council for determination.

"Careful consideration will need to be given to the implications of the court’s judgment in the context of current local and national planning policy before any further recommendation can be formulated.

"So far as the ownership of the land is concerned, it remains in third party ownership and any further consideration of that - including any possible mediation - is a matter for Shrewsbury Town Council and the current landowner, not Shropshire Council whose involvement in this matter has been as local planning authority.

"We will be working with LGA and Royal Town Planning Institute to understand what the judgment means for the planning system as a whole moving forward."

An identical statement on the council's website but not read out by Councillor Marshall added: "The court’s order will also require the council to pay costs, up to a cap because the matter is environmental and therefore subject to cost protection. The precise terms of that order are still to be agreed."

Councillor Marshall was answering a question from Councillor Roger Evans who was a former councillor for the area. Councillor Evans was upset that his question was not answered at a recent meeting of the full council in front of all the elected members. He said a press release was issued before councillors knew.

Council leader councillor Lezley Picton told the meeting that the council does not yet have the court judgment but the timescale on the planning application has been put aside.

"It will take time for this to come out in the wash," she said.

Dr Peter Day, of the Greenfields Community Group, said: "There would appear to be no fault or action of liability accepted by anyone. It’s is almost as this happened by complete accident. It is clearly nonsense to continue with this approach."

Dr Day added: "We have made requests to both Shropshire Council and Shrewsbury Town Council for further investigations.

"There has been a huge waste of tax payers money defending the indefensible when opportunities have existed since 2018 to halt the planning process and compensate all concerned and right up until the Supreme Court, mediate, not progress to court."

Shrewsbury Town Council has been asked to comment.