A date has been set for the High Court showdown where the final fate of controversial plans to revamp a Norwich shopping centre will be decided.
Whether the £271m redevelopment of Anglia Square can go ahead or not will be settled once and for all during a two-day High Court hearing starting on May 19.
The legal action was triggered because developers Weston Homes and site owners Columbia Threadneedle challenged the decision by local government secretary Robert Jenrick to refuse permission for the revamp.
Plans for the shopping centre had been approved by Norwich City Council’s planning committee in 2018.
Those plans include more than 1,200 new homes, including within a 20-storey tower, a hotel, cinema, car parks and new shops.
But the proposals attracted fierce criticism from organisations such as Historic England and the Norwich Society, due to the massing and height and its impact on the historic city skyscape, including on Norwich Cathedral.
That led to a four-week planning inquiry and, after months of deliberations, planning inspector David Prentis said the scheme should be permitted.
But Mr Jenrick thought otherwise and, in November last year, rejected the scheme.
He said the massing of the individual blocks and the tower, and the extent to which the height and mass of the proposal would be “uncharacteristic” in the Norwich City Centre Conservation Area and did not fit with policy.
He said the benefits of the scheme were not sufficient to outbalance the identified ‘less than substantial’ harm to heritage assets.
Bob Weston, chairman and chief executive of Weston Homes, said at the time: “The secretary of state has gone against local democracy and the recommendations of a public inquiry, choosing to side with the NIMBY brigade who would rather see Norwich city centre die than support a future for the city’s economy."
His company applied for a statutory review and May's hearing will see a High Court judge decide whether the secretary of state was right to reject the scheme.
The judge could overrule that decision and permit the scheme to go ahead.
A spokesman for Weston Homes said, now a date had been fixed for the hearing, it would not be appropriate to comment further.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here