Judicial review could be launched in Holy Cross battle
Posted by http://chalfontstpeter.buckinghamshireadvertiser.co.uk/jack_abell - Jack Abell on Oct 7, 10 10:08 AM http://chalfontstpeter.buckinghamshireadvertiser.co.uk/chalfont-st-giles/ - in Chalfont St Giles
THE government has decided not to call in for inspection the controversial decision by Chiltern District Council (CDC) to allow hundreds of homes to be built on the Holy Cross site in Chalfont St Peter. In a letter sent to opposition group Sense 4 CSP, the department for communities and local government said that is not central government's responsibility to scrutinise applications against local planning policies.
Sense had hoped that the government would intervene in the situation, but now that is clear that this will not happen, they have written to the parish council to ask them to consider launching a judicial review into the situation. Sense has vowed that it will pursue all options open to them in their bid to fight the development, and the judicial review is being seen as their next step. A spokesman for the group said: "It is possible that Chalfont St Peter parish council will see to judicially review the decision made by CDC. "We have written to Richard Allen [chairman of the parish council] requesting that they mount legal proceedings on behalf of the village. "Although costly, a judicial review will ensure that the people responsible for this outrageous mismanagement of the planning process are held accountable and hopefully make them think twice before acting so disgracefully again. "The parish council's barrister is writing to CDC to request their casework and once this has been returned and studied, we will have a better idea of our chances of success." The decision to allow nearly 200 homes to be built on the Holy Cross site was met with widespread outrage in the village when it was announced at the beginning of August. Since then, the parish council and Sense have been working on plans of action to combat it, because of the level of threat they believe the development poses to Chalfont St Peter.
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