Ardagh Glass is reportedly seeking leave from the Administrative Court to challenge the decision of Cheshire West and Chester Council to grant Quinn Glass planning permission for its Elton plant.
The…
Ardagh Glass is reportedly seeking leave from the Administrative Court to challenge the decision of Cheshire West and Chester Council to grant Quinn Glass planning permission for its Elton plant. The Court of Appeal recently dismissed Ardagh“s challenge to the High Court“s confirmation of the council“s right to grant retrospective planning permission for Quinn“s plant – if there were exceptional circumstances for doing so. Council leader Mike Jones said: The council has worked closely with the London office of specialist law firm Denton Wilde Sapte in successfully defending its position and will continue to do so in respect of this latest challenge. In light of the Court of Appeal decision, we remain confident that our approach to this matter has been entirely correct throughout and remains so in respect of this latest challenge. The council granted planning permission for the Quinn plant in November 2009 as it had always believed that it was entitled to decide the matter. During the recent hearing at the Court of Appeal, judges ruled that if taken to their logical conclusion, the legal arguments put forward by Ardagh“s leading barrister would mean that a planning authority could never grant permission for an existing development even if the environmental effects of the development were positive. The court reached a unanimous decision on the first day without hearing Quinn Glass or the council and dismissed the appeal. Ardagh Glass was also ordered to pay the council“s costs in responding to the appeal and was criticized for the unnecessary amount of paperwork filed in support of its case. Moreover, the court also refused to grant Ardagh permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in the UK or to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice.