Five local residents are taking Waverley Borough Council (WBC) to the High Court for a Judicial Review into the East Street / Brightwells development. There was a preliminary hearing, at the Royal Courts of Justice, on 31 January 2017, to establish the legal standing of the five claimants.
The five were granted permission in August 2016 to go to Judicial Review. This was to examine whether WBC had behaved lawfully in their management of the development contract. Specifically, their case was that WBC failed to retender the contract after making significant changes to the benefit of the developer, Crest Nicholson. WBC challenged the legal standing of the claimants, arguing that a claim could only be brought by a rival developer. The matter was heard on 31 January before Mr Justice Dove. The judgement is expected to be announced within a few weeks of the hearing.
While the group of residents is not opposed to redevelopment of the area, it believes that the proposed scheme fails to provide what Waverley offered when they first set out their ideas for the development back in 2003. Click here to see how the scheme has changed.