{"id":20406,"date":"2018-10-09T18:02:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T17:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=20406"},"modified":"2018-10-09T18:02:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T17:02:50","slug":"save-on-a-brave-challenge-by-manchester-civic-society-rejected-by-high-court-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=20406","title":{"rendered":"SAVE on a \u2018Brave Challenge\u2019 by Manchester Civic Society, rejected by High Court Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"website\"<\/a>The legal challenge by Manchester Civic Society to a proposed 40-storey tower overwhelming Manchester\u2019s civic centre has been rejected by a High Court judge.<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

SAVE writes:<\/p>\n

SAVE considered that the chairman of Manchester Civic Society Steve Speakman had strong legal grounds for challenging the City Council\u2019s planning permission.<\/p>\n

The challenge was the last chance to reverse the decision after Government ministers refused to hold a public inquiry into the strongly contested proposals.<\/p>\n

The judge denied Steve Speakman permission to proceed and ordered him to pay \u00a35,000 in costs. Steve Speakman is now raising funds to cover these costs \u2013 please donate here.<\/p>\n

The legal team acting for Mr Speakman, Richard Harwood QC and solicitor Susan Ring, submitted the challenge to the High Court on the following grounds:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. That the Council had not applied the correct tests for assessing substantial harm to the conservation area;<\/li>\n
  2. That the Council had not properly dealt with its own planning policies;<\/li>\n
  3. That following an Environmental Impact Assessment the Council had failed to give reasons for their decision as required;<\/li>\n
  4. That the Minutes of the planning committee meeting completely misrepresented what happened at the planning meeting;<\/li>\n
  5. That not a single Councillor spoke in favour of the proposal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Known as \u2018St Michael\u2019s\u2019, the development has drawn widespread criticism for the looming and overbearing impact that the 40-storey tower would have on the conservation area and Manchester town hall and the Albert Memorial. The plans were granted consent by Manchester City Council on 20 June 2018.<\/p>\n

    The proposals are being promoted by Jackson\u2019s Row Developments Limited led by former Manchester United players Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville. Manchester City Council also has a land interest in the scheme.<\/p>\n

    SAVE commissioned an alternative scheme from Ian Chalk Architects showing how a more carefully scaled proposal could bring the 1930s police station and surrounding streets back to life and transformed with a conservation led approach. See the alternative design concept here.<\/p>\n

    Marcus Binney, Executive President of SAVE, said: \u2018It is outrageous that such a major scheme facing major opposition both locally and nationally should be waved through without a proper discussion. The decision making process has been skewed by Government lethargy and Council greed.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Henrietta Billings, Director of SAVE, said: \u2018The St Michael\u2019s permission has implications not only for Manchester but for so-called protected townscapes across the country. From Bristol and Norwich to London and Edinburgh – there is growing alarm about the impact of massive over-scaled development on our historic townscapes and the way these decisions are being made.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n

    For more background see https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=19882<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The legal challenge by Manchester Civic Society to a proposed 40-storey tower overwhelming Manchester\u2019s civic centre has been rejected by a High Court judge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20407,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20406\/revisions\/20407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}