Alasdair Burnet QC successfully represented the respondent in a challenge by Cosmopolitan Hotels Limited against a decision by the local authority to remove a proposed residential development site at Erskine Bridge from the housing allocations within the proposed new local development plan (LDP).
Renfrewshire Council, acting on the recommendation of the Scottish Ministers’ local development plan examination reporters, resolved to modify the proposed LDP to remove the site from the list of sites allocated for residential development under the Housing Land Supply policy. The petitioner sought judicial review of the Council’s decision to propose to accept the recommendation and adopt the plan.
The Court found that it was not competent to proceed by way of judicial review where there was a statutory right to appeal against the adoption of the LDP after it took place under section 238 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, and section 237 of the Act precludes any challenge to the LDP except by that statutory appeal procedure.
Douglas Armstrong QC appeared for the Petitioner.
The full decision can be read here: Cosmopolitan Hotels Limited v Renfrewshire Council [2021] CSOH 116
