RICHARD BUXTON
SOLICITORS
ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING & PUBLIC LAW 19B Victoria Street
Cambridge CBI IJP
Tel: (01223) 328933
Newcastle City Council
Development Management
www.richardbuxton.co.uk
Civic Centre
Newcastle upon Tyne
law@richardbuxton.co.uk
NEI 8QH
By email only: Planning Committee Members
cc: Kath Lawless, Director of Planning
Jill Young, Planning Officer
Our ref: NUSI-OOI/MM/AP
Email:
mmcfeeley@richardbuxton.co.uk
7 November 2019
TIME SENSITIVE - RELEVANT TO PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING ON 8 NOVEMBER 2019
Dear Sirs,
Re: Application for a mixed use redevelopment at Strawberry Place; Ref. 2019/0879/01/DET
We are instructed by the Newcastle United Supporters Trust ("the Trust"), a not-for-profit organisation which represents 10,000 Newcastle United supporters and is committed to strengthening the voice for supporters in the decision making process at Newcastle United, and strengthening the links between Newcastle United and the local community it serves.
The above application has been recommended for approval by officers and is scheduled for a vote before the Planning Committee at tomorrow's meeting.
As you may be aware, the application for a mixed use redevelopment at Strawberry Place ('the application") is highly contentious. It has generated over I ,OOO objections.
Importantly, the scheme has been amended on multiple occasions. In particular,
amendments to the scheme have been made so recently that they postdate the release of the Officer's Report to this Committee on 31 October, as set out in the Officer's Addendum report.
It is also clear from the description of the development as it now is set out on page I of the Officer's Report that plans/details dated 25 October 2019 are considered integral to the scheme, despite this being the closing date for the last public consultation. Furthermore, amended documents, including a Revised Design and Access Statement and Revised Landscape Addendum
Partners: Richard Buxton* MA (Cantab) MES (Yale), Lisa Foster Juris D MSc (UEA) MA (York)
Solicitors: Simon Kelly BA MSt (Oxon), Paul Taylor. BA (Oxon), Hannah Brown MA (Cantab), Matthew McFeeley BSc MIDP Juris D
Consultants: Paul Stookes* PhD MSc LLB, Adrienne Copithorne* BA (Cantab) MA (UC Berkeley), Kristina Kenworthy BA (Hons) LLM Env (UCL) Solicitor and Practice Manager: Caroline Chilvers BA (Hons) Office Manager: Kath Kusyn
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have been posted to the Council's website for public review as recently as 4
November 2019.
This is contrary to the Council's legal obligations, as the Trust and other members of the public have not been provided with the statutorily-mandated 21 day period to consider the revised proposal and provide comments. See R(Holbom Studios Ltd) v. Hackney I-BC, [2017] EWHC 2823 (Admin).
It is clear that the Council's duty of procedural fairness requires it to provide the Trust and other interested Newcastle residents with the opportunity to consider the amended proposal in full and to provide comments.
In the circumstances, and in particular given the very large number of representations that this proposal has generated - which demonstrate the public's widespread concerns about the proposed scheme —
we respectfully request that the Council defer the application until the December Planning Committee meeting to allow the Trust and other members of the public to properly consider the revised plans and comment on these (and allow officers to consider whether to maintain their recommendation in light of such comments).
Failure to do so would be contrary to the Council's legal duties and leave any decision by the Committee to approve the application open to legal challenge.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Buxton Solicitors
Environmental, Planning & Public Law
to be slightly concerned that you may have misunderstood my point.
