UPDATE 19th September 2024
Planning Permission to convert the public House into residential (WA/2024/00149) has already been issued by the Council and it may only be reconsidered by its planning committee if quashed by the High Court.
The Blackheath Village Society have issued a pre-action protocol letter to Waverley Borough Council for judicial review claims. The protocol requires the letter to contain, amongst other things, the date and details of the decision, act or omission being challenged, a clear summary of the facts, the legal basis for the claim and the details of any information that the claimant is seeking and an explanation of why this is considered relevant.
The initial stage of this process, including a pre-action letter will cost £9,000 to cover legal costs and we have instructed Keystone Law to act on our behalf. You can help us by contributing to our dedicated Crowdfunding Page
Our main argument is in respect to the non-compliance of strict planning conditions attached to Planning Consent WA/2017/1853, which required the pub/cafe to be renovated in accordance with the proposed plans. Even though a Breach of Condition Notice was issued on 7 November 2021, this was never enforced by the Council. Other concerns include the applicant’s failure to comply with Policy ICS1(3) of the Waverley Local Plan, which mandates consultation with the community and service providers. The attached letter to Waverley Borough Council provides detailed information of the pre-action protocol letter:
The cost of a Judicial Review to “save our pub”.
“Judicial Review (JR) costs are significant and the risks are high. It is a front-loaded process so the initial stage of assessing the case in forensic detail and developing detailed grounds is absolutely vital.
£4,000-5,000 + VAT is the ball-park sort of cost for this part of the process rising to £7,500 + VAT to include a pre-action letter. There is no adverse costs risk other than one’s own costs if a claim is not ultimately issued in court.
Whole costs for a JR are not insignificant. Costs would be about £17,500 + VAT up to the point of issuing proceedings, and taking it to the stage of the judge’s order on “permission” (one needs permission from a judge – only an ‘arguable’ case will proceed). As a guide it would probably cost around £30-40,000 +VAT to take a case all the way through to a court hearing, depending on the seniority of the barrister used. The court may make a costs award against the losing party too. This is uncertain but the sums are usually lower than claimant costs because 1) public authority defendant; 2) only one set of costs awarded even if the applicant/ developer is an active ‘interested party’ to proceedings and 2) claimants make most of the running.
Strong cases can end early with a consent order, and substantial costs recovery, but as a general rule of thumb successful parties should never expect to make more than a 50% return on outlay. Weak cases may end early at permission stage because the judge refuses to grant permission for a full hearing – the total cost of that failure would be nearer £22,500 + VAT, including costs of the other side.”
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