Darwen pathfinder.

[Schoolmarm]

I was very distressed today, nearly in tears, to see the bulldozer or whatever it was start the demolition of five or six houses.

I mistakenly had thought a salvage type job would be done to rescue all the slates, stone gutters, stone cills etc.

I never for one moment thought they would just SMASH it all up.

They were throwing wood into one wagon and everything else into another.

Gutted. Me.

 

[Nemesis]

I know. I have a great deal of information. It's dreadful.

The little people have no chance.

You aren't as gutted as those who have fought this through three inquiries.

There is an awful legal precedent here. It's not as though these are being bulldozed for homes, but an Academy...

Neutral Citation Number: [2008] EWHC 62 (QB)

Case No: 10407/2007 and CO/6942/2006
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 24/01/2008

Before :

MR JUSTICE WILKIE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Between :

(1)ADRIAN ALLEN WALKER AND THOMAS KEVIN BRIAN Claimants
- and -
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN BOROUGH COUNCIL
(2)THE QUEEN ON THE APPLICATION OF WALKER AND
BLACKBURN & DARWEN BOROUGH COUNCIL Defendants



Claimant

Defendant


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Andrew Fraser-Urquhart instructed by Davies, Gore, Lomax for the Claimants
David Elvin QC and Graeme Keen (instructed by Blackburn and Darwen Borough Council) for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
John Litton instructed by the Treasury Solicitor for the Secretary of State

Hearing dates: 15 January 2008
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.


.............................


MR JUSTICE WILKIE :

1. The court has to deal with an application made under section 23 of the Acquisition of Land Act 1981 (the ALA) and an application made by the defendant to an associated judicial review application. The parties are agreed that the main matter to be dealt with by the Court is the ALA application. Depending on its outcome I will either, grant the application of the defendant in the associated judicial review as a consequence of dismissing the ALA application, or, if I uphold the ALA application, I will hear brief argument why that application should be granted notwithstanding that decision.
The section 23 application – the background
2. The claimants apply to quash the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen (Darwen Academy) (No 3) Compulsory Purchase Order 2006 (“the CPO”). That order was made on 24 October 2006 pursuant to section 226(1)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (“The TCPA”). The claimants are qualifying objectors to the making of that order and, having made a relevant objection, the Secretary of State, as required by 13A(3) of the ALA, caused a local inquiry to be held during June 2007. The Inspector’s report of 17 August 2007 recommended that the CPO be confirmed by the Secretary of State without modification. The Secretary of State did so by her decision letter dated 3 October 2007.
3. The underlying subject matter of the CPO was the decision of the Borough Council to provide a site (“the Redearth site”) adjacent to Darwen town centre, for the establishment of a City Academy. The siting of such an Academy was the subject of dissent, in particular by those whose view was that such a school should, if at all, be sited on the site of the existing Darwen Moorlands High School whose site was some distance from the town centre and on a ridge above the river which flows through the town centre. By the time of the inquiry the Council had granted outline planning permission and reserved matters approval for the provision of the Academy on the Redearth site. The process by which the Borough Council had, prior to that application, taken the decision to site the Academy on the Redearth site was the subject of criticism. This focussed on the adequacy of consultation. The view the inspector took on that issue forms one of the major planks of the application.

 

[Schoolmarm]

I have a friend who is a landrover specialist. His garage is slap bang in the middle of all this. He is one of the last two businesses to be hanging on.

They still haven't put forward a proper compulsory purchase price and he is in limbo unable to buy anywhere else.

They are demolishing around him.

He is one of the few to have bought his building to give him some security. It was rented previously.

 

[Nemesis]

I got that on the 25th (I have the full judgment) along with a request to see if there was anywhere else that was using Pathfinder as an excuse to CPO for something other than housing.

There was until I think Friday to lodge a legal challenge. But really the place is b*gg*red now. Nice homes, bulldozed.


This is our cash...

 

[Schoolmarm]

It was tuesday or something that they heard the final appeal was lost.

So they are building the new houses elsewhere are they?

Frickin academy.

Honestly less than one mile away is all the land they could possibly need for an academy.
Grrrrrrrr

 

[Nemesis]

I don't think thay are replacing all they are bulldozing.

People have just moved. Or been moved.

 

[Schoolmarm]

There are three brave households still hanging on in redearth road. 8)

 

[Nemesis]

But - market value - what will they now get?

I agree - very brave indeed.

 

[Nemesis]

The submissions from the recent inquiry into the Edge Lane, Liverpool demolitions:

http://www.persona.uk.com/edgelane/inquirydocuments.htm

The good guys stuff is mostly here:

http://www.persona.uk.com/edgelane/other_parties_docs.htm

I commend however that anyone and everyone reads Elizabeth Pascoe's proof - it may not be in the usual inquiry style, far from it, but it's riveting stuff and heartfelt.

http://www.persona.uk.com/edgelane/Objectors_docs/OBJ-03/OBJ-03-01.pdf