High Court rejects challenge to Shepherd's Bush Market redevelopment

LBHF granted permission to the £150 million development last year, including proposals for 212 new homes and an expanded market with new stalls, shops, restaurants and an open square.

The challenge, which had been brought by a group of local retailers, was dismissed on all grounds, including claims that LBHF had given insufficient weight to a supplementary planning document (SPD), that it had failed to take into account the final version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and that the environmental statement submitted with the scheme was inadequate.

The judge said, in a judgment seen by Out-Law.com, that LBHF's planning committee had been entitled to not give weight to a SPD adopted in 2010 and that this did not prevent it from concluding that the proposals complied with the development plan. There was "nothing unreasonable" in planning officers' advice to the committee that the proposals were acceptable under relevant policy "without the need to rely on the guidance in the SPD," he said.    

The SPD was subject to a separate legal challenge and was quashed by the High Court last year after LBHF had granted planning permission to the scheme.

The judge dismissed a claim that the proposals should have been referred back to the planning committee to be considered in the light of the NPPF which was published and took effect three days before LBHF issued its decision notice granting planning permission.

He said that, although the final version of the NPPF had not been taken into account by the Council in determining the application, it would not have made any difference to the committee's decision if it had been considered. "I cannot accept the submission that the NPPF, once published in its final form as Government policy, became a new material consideration that the Council had to address before issuing its decision notice," the judge said.

The judge also rejected the claim that the environmental statement submitted with the proposals was inadequate which resulted in the Council failing to consider the "indirect, cumulative and secondary effects" of the development as required by Environmental Impact Assessment regulations.

"The environmental statement was properly prepared. It satisfied all of the requirements for an environmental statement. And there were no shortcomings in it that prevented the Council from lawfully granting planning permission when it did," he said.

“This is a victory for common sense," said LBHF Council leader Nicholas Botterill in a statement. "The council hopes that all local businesses will work with the developers to take full advantage of the opportunities that the scheme provides to attract new customers to this area of Shepherds Bush. The offer of new premises remains firmly on the table for businesses wishing to stay in this location,” he added.