The application for permission to apply for Judicial Review was refused by the Honourable Justice Garnham. He agreed with Warwick District Council that the case for Riverside House (the Covent Garden case being out of time) was not properly arguable. His reasons are "that the Council had regard to its policy. That policy set out an expectation that that developers make a contribution. That gave the Council a discretion; it did not impose an obligation. The Council is entitled to exercise a judgement that the viability of the development is such that a contribution should  not be required." The Judge further ordered that the Council's costs of £3000 be paid by the claimant. Those of us most closely involved in this case are deeply disappointed by this decision and the award of costs against us. In essence, the weakness of the financial viability for the development has led to vital services not receiving the funding that they would normally be expected to receive and which they all requested. This was not unlawful, as we sought to argue, but it continues to expose the very flawed basis for this development and the related one at Covent Garden. We are very grateful to our supporters. We will continue to find ways of campaigning against these developments.

Hugely disappointing news. We will provide a fuller update soon. In the meantime we would like to thank everyone who has supported our crowdfunding campaign.

Thanks to the wonderful support of our many backers, we have now raised more than £5,000 in total towards the costs of seeking this Judicial Review. Warwick District Council has issued its defence of our claim. Our legal team has countered with compelling arguments for why that defence is defective in law.

On the advice of our lawyers, we are now focusing solely on the Riverside House planning decision. This is because we were technically out of time to challenge the Covent Garden planning decision through judicial review and it would have been a costly distraction to argue before a judge to allow that claim to proceed and lose focus on the strength of our arguments about Riverside House. If we win that case, it would not be possible for the Council to proceed with the Covent Garden development in any case since the two projects are inseparably linked.

We expect to hear from a judge very soon whether our case can proceed to a full court hearing. We still need your financial help. Getting this far has been expensive. 

But the strength of our legal case is having an impact on the confidence of the Council about its decisions. It is also supporting the growing public opposition to these wasteful projects. They are only benefiting developers financially, and the Council through the provision of new offices, when there are alternative ways of providing those at cheaper cost. This is at the expense of much-needed affordable housing and s.106 contributions for education, health, and community services. Extended disruption to town centre parking is another consequence of these plans with an inadequate strategy to mitigate this problem to the serious concern of businesses and residents.

 Please continue to give what you can afford and spread the link to our page to widen our community of support for this important cause.