The Leader of Plymouth City Council, is calling for an end to the current judicial review process, enabling the Council to crack on with the much-needed regeneration.
On 19 May 2023, the first major decision of new Council Leader, Councillor Tudor Evans OBE, was to overturn the March 2023 decision in relation to the Armada Way scheme. This means the currently stalled scheme will now not be implemented and a revised scheme will be put forward.
On 26 May 2023, the Council wrote to the claimant’s solicitors asking them to withdraw their legal action, enabling the city to move forward.
The claimants only agreed to withdraw their proceedings subject to certain conditions which the Council is unable to accept because it considers they far exceed what the Court would determine as part of this case.
Therefore, the Council will now make an application to the High Court directly for it to consider bringing an end the current proceedings on the basis they are now academic.
As the project scheme has already been delayed by three months, leaving the city centre in a mess, negatively impacting the livelihood of local businesses and the reputation of the city, the Council feels that it is time to move on and get a scheme delivered.
Councillor Tudor Evans, said: “The city centre is looking awful and whilst we obviously want to move forward with the clean-up of the felled trees and stumps as soon as we can, we don’t want to be held-up any further once that is done.
“The legal action is based on a redundant decision. All it is doing is preventing the Council from moving forward with a revised scheme.
“What the claimant has asked for is above and beyond what would be requested by the court. It would also result in further delays. We must move on. I know that people will see this action as a positive step to sorting out Armada Way.
“We must not conflate what happened in the past with the future. We must rebuild and focus on how we can make our city centre, green, attractive and buzzing for the businesses.”