Conservation charity the Spitalfields Historic Trust has failed in a bid to challenge the mayor of London’s power to act as a planning authority.
The case, Spitalfields Historic Building Trust v Mayor of London, centres on the checks and balances that exist between the mayor and the London local authorities in the capital’s planning rules .
It is also the first legal challenge that has been made to new rules that allow the mayor to take over planning decisions from other London local authorities for projects considered to be of “potential special importance”.
The site at the centre of this dispute is in the North Folgate area of Spitalfields, E1, on the fringes of the City. British Land Property Management want to build a large mixed office/residential scheme.
In 2015 the mayor made a so-called PSI application to take control of the planning decision, and, after investigating the plan, gave it permission.
The Spitalfields Trust both opposed both the plan and the granting of a PSI application. However, the mayor was told only that the Trust opposed the plan.
The Trust claims that had the mayor been informed of this he might have made a different decision about whether he was the appropriate planning decision maker.
The case was dismissed by Gilbart J in the High Court. Today the Trust asked Vos LJ for permission to appeal it to the Court of Appeal.
He said that, although he was refusing permission to appeal, the case raised some important issues that might be explored in other cases.
Vos added that if he allowed the appeal to go ahead, he could “foresee lengthy hearings with many parties considering interesting questions such as ‘what is the position when the court is required to look into the mind of a decision maker?’”.
But he said that in this case, whatever conclusion was reached on that point, it is likely that the mayor would have made the same decision, so the appeal would not be a success.
