Shambolic decision-making and ignored policies

Help residents raise £10,000 to take Manchester City Council to Court over controversial development plans.  

Residents in Hulme need to raise £10,000 to take Manchester City Council to High Court over the controversial decision to approve a student accommodation development.

The plans were refused by the planning committee on four separate occasions. Yet in January of this year, a shambolic planning meeting ended in the committee approving the planning permission.   

Residents say that this decision was unlawful. Now they need support so that they can take the council to High Court and stop the plans.

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The fight 

The residents have been fighting against plans for many years. They’re arguing that the council have ignored their own processes. 

“We were astonished when the Planning Committee went back on its previous view on this proposal. It feels like somebody bent the rules to get this through.” said James from Greater Manchester Tenants Union.

“[The residents] already have a plan that includes a social centre and social housing to serve the existing community. We need the decision to build student accommodation here to be quashed, so that the community plan can be re-platformed as an alternative for the site.” 

Jane is a local resident and campaigner. She said “It’s really important for all of Manchester and other cities that this development isn’t allowed to happen. What they get away with here will send a signal to other developers that our communities are fair game”.  

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The legal case 

Alexandra Goldenberg is a solicitor at PILC who’s supporting residents with their case. “In reaching this decision Manchester City Council has effectively circumvented due process and left residents feeling disenfranchised from planning decisions” she said. 

The group plans to challenge the council's decision on the following grounds: 

• Planning officers told the committee that there was no lawful reason for them to refuse the application, and that if they did want to refuse, they would have to be ‘minded to’ refuse again. This was wrong. Planning committees always have the power to refuse 

• Planning officers seriously misled the committee - they said they could not refuse the application again. 

• Planning officers failed to give reasons for deviating from a decision to refuse planning permission for a similar project on the same site in 2012. Planning law states that a local planning authority must show consistency in their decision-making 

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What the money is for 

The legal team are working on this challenge on a ‘conditional fee agreement’, meaning that the resident bringing the case will not have to pay any of their legal costs.  

But they need to raise money to protect the resident from adverse legal costs if the judicial review is unsuccessful. 

The residents believe that they have a strong chance of success. However, they simply cannot afford to take the risk.  

Please donate whatever you can afford today. Thank you.  

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Public Interest Law Centre with the assistance of Greater Manchester Law Centre are supporting  residents with their legal case. 

You can donate to support at https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-hulme-take-manchester-city-council-to-court/ 

For updates on the campaign, follow @blocktheblock1 and @gmtenantsunion.