Statement from Braintree District Council
- Braintree District Council’s planning committee granted planning permission for a development of 78 homes on a site in the centre of Witham known as Gimsons.
- Witham Town Council (WTC) sought to challenge the decision in the High Court by way of a Judicial Review. However WTC were refused permission by the High court to challenge the decision, with the judge noting that none of the three appeal grounds put forward by WTC were valid and awarded costs against WTC.
- Despite this, WTC sought a renewal hearing in an effort to further bring their Judicial Review Challenge. This has again been dismissed by the High Court following a hearing this week.
- Braintree District Council (BDC) takes its responsibility as local planning authority extremely seriously and operates a professional and transparent planning service. The process for determining this planning application was robustly challenged by Witham Town Council and the High Court judges on two separate occasions have found that BDC had operated in the correct manner in determining this application.
- Fighting these appeals has cost taxpayers thousands of pounds.