David Logan successfully represented the petitioners, a community interest company, in a Judicial Review against a planning decision of Dundee City Council to install an e-bike docking station outside residential flats in the West End Suburbs Conservation Area of Dundee.

The core of the challenge by Westend Residents CIC was whether or not a design statement should have been prepared for the application.  This in turn hinged upon whether the proposal was classified as an engineering operation in terms of regulation 13 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2013.  Lord Weir was persuaded that there had been an error in the process in that it had not been appreciated that a design statement was required in a Conservation Area.  Any attempt to justify the failure to have a design statement by claiming that this was an engineering operation was an ex post facto justification.

In his Judgement, Lord Weir concluded that there had been a breach of the 2013 regulations in not having that design statement and that it could not be said that the absence of this statement might not have resulted in a different decision or a different decision making process. He accordingly quashed the decision.

Douglas Armstrong QC, appeared on behalf of the Council.