Newbury resident to appeal High Court decision that went in favour of West Berkshire Council's approval of the Monks Lane Sports Hub

The High Court decision siding with West Berkshire Council on how it approved the Monks Lane Sports Hub in Newbury will go to appeal.

Newbury resident Alan Pearce has refused to accept the ruling, and has lodged the appeal, saying: “The council erred in failing, and expressly refusing to consider or compare, the implications of the proposed development for the Faraday Road site.

“Providing a replacement for the Faraday Road site was the number one priority of the Playing Pitch Strategy.

“The council failed to consider whether the development of the Sports Hub imperilled the fulfilment of that priority, although the Playing Pitch Strategy was accepted as being a material consideration in the decision.”

The move has been welcomed by the Newbury Community Football Group (NCFG) which has been consistently against the £10m-£15m spend on the Monks Lane hub, claiming it could keep Faraday Road in play for a fraction of the cost.

The NCFG obtained planning permission for a club house and changing rooms at Faraday Road last year. But the council has the land earmarked for development.

“Although the claimant has, like Newbury Community Football Group, a keen interest in maintaining a sports facility in the heart of Newbury, his reasons for bringing this case goes beyond this and includes protecting public green space, challenging the conflict of interest between West Berkshire Council as a landowner and as an Local Planning Authority,” said Paul Morgan of the NCFG.

“Ensuring proper public consultation in accordance with the council’s own constitution takes place, ensuring local and national planning policies are upheld and finally and most importantly that the council adheres to the principles of public life.”

He said the claimant anticipated the possible loss of the Judicial Review but still felt that a legal challenge was necessary and his only real option.

This was due to West Berkshire Council and Sport England’s joint statement being included as an informative on the planning decision notice which stated, “the development of proposals at Newbury Rugby Club is an enhanced replacement to meet the community’s needs for Faraday Road Stadium, in line with the Playing Pitch Strategy”.

“The justification for the upfront costs, and ongoing subsidy, which was signed off by the executive in December 2021, less than three months before the final planning committee was “to award the call off contract for development management services to Alliance Leisure for the construction of Newbury Sports Hub and thereby achieve the delivery of the number one priority in the Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS),” he said.

“Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary the council won the court case by claiming that the Sports Hub proposal is not linked in any way to the Faraday Road football ground and justified it, from a planning perspective, as a standalone development to fulfil the short fall of 3G pitches and not to fulfil the number one priority of the Playing Pitch Strategy.

“This means that the court case confirms that the council have committed to spending a massive amount of public taxpayers’ funds on a scheme that clearly does not meet the justification for that spend, i.e. to achieve the delivery of the number one priority in the Playing Pitch Strategy.”

The claimant, Alan Pearce was ordered to pay council legal costs after the ruling last week, said to run into tens of thousands of pounds.