A controversial planning decision by Rother District Council has been quashed following legal proceedings.
In June last year, Rother planners granted a temporary planning consent, allowing for the stationing of caravans on land in Netherfield Road near Battle for a period of three years.
Planning officers at the time had said the proposal would “result in harm to the landscape and scenic beauty of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)”, but had recommended approval due to a lack of alternative Gypsy and Traveller sites within the district.
The decision proved to be controversial with residents, leading to an application for a judicial review. This resulted in the planning permission being formally quashed last Thursday (February 29), after the council accepted it had failed to properly advertise the application.
The application for judicial review had been put forward by Battle resident Bernard Brown, acting on behalf of the campaign group RAUDIN (Residents Against Unauthorised Development in Netherfield).
While he welcomed the results, Mr Brown criticised the council’s approach to paying his legal costs for the case (as had been ordered by the court).
Mr Brown said: “It was akin to being in a TV auction programme as Rother haggled over costs.
“Rother claimed they had to protect the public purse, choosing to ignore the fact that had Rother planning done their job properly in the first place and had Rother conceded to the claim at the start of the proceedings there would have been no costs involved.
“Having had to admit they were in the wrong, you would expect, as a matter of integrity, the council to meet the costs, by failing to do so they have provided evidence of the price they put on the council’s integrity.
“To avoid additional stress and potential additional legal cost and to avoid Rother taxpayers facing an even bigger bill we settled on a figure less than their actual costs. If there is such a thing as corporate conscience, Rother must be very troubled.”
Mr Brown went on to compare the case to the quashing of a separate application for planning consent on an application at Beech Farm in Sedlescombe. He said believed the costs paid to the claimants in these two cases had exceeded £15,000, although this was disputed by the council.
A Rother District Council spokesperson said: “We accept that the Netherfield application deviated from the local plan and should have been advertised in the local newspaper. This oversight meant that we failed to carry out part of the legal process.
“As is standard in these cases, RAUDIN’s legal representative negotiated directly with Rother District Council to determine what ‘reasonable costs’ should be paid and these were agreed by both parties. It is not true that more than £15,000 was paid out to the parties involved in both cases mentioned.
