London East, UK - SAVE Britain's Heritage has secured a landmark court judgment which gives new protection to buildings threatened with demolition. The ruling means that most forms of demolition previously exempted from planning controls could now need planning permission.

The ruling came after a Court of Appeal hearing in London and marked the end of a long-running and complex legal case. The case, brought by SAVE against the Secretary of State for Communities, was fought by SAVE's superb legal team - Susan Ring of Richard Buxton Solicitors and barristers Richard Harwood and Andrew Deakin of 39 Essex Street.

The case involved the Government's interpretation of a European Directive - Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) - which governs the impacts of building projects on the environment. Up until now the Government had argued that EIA was not required for demolition alone as demolition was not a 'project'. This meant that no planning consent was needed to demolish a building that was not a dwelling, a listed building, or a building in a conservation area.

However, the Court of Appeal ruled to the contrary, saying that demolition could indeed be classed as a project and that it could attract EIA (and would therefore need planning permission). This automatically meant that the directive in UK law which exempts the demolition of certain building types from requiring planning permission became unlawful.

The ruling will have major implications for planning authorities, and will have a particular and immediate impact on proposed demolitions of large areas of terraced housing under the now defunct Housing Market Renewal (Pathfinder) Initiative. SAVE is currently involved in a number of Pathfinder battles, such as the campaign to save the 'Welsh Streets' area of Toxteth, Liverpool, (including Ringo Starr's birthplace) from the bulldozers...

[source: SAVE Britain's Heritage newsletter May 2011. For more see link below.

Save Britain's Heritage

SAVE May 2011 newsletter [pdf download

Story Type:  News

ID: 60611