29th November 2022
The Judicial Review brought by Fews Lane Consortium against South Cambs District Council has been discontinued by FLC on the eve of coming to court.
FLC had claimed that the process of granting planning permission for 4000 homes at Northstowe was flawed and should be reviewed. Expenses of £10,000 were awarded against Fews Lane Consortium in favour of SCDC. Although this is the maximum amount allowed, SCDC estimate the costs it had incurred at £45,000.
South Cambs’ statement is available on its website. As yet, FLC have made no comment.
Update: Fews Lane Consortium has now issued a statement. Read it here.
The donations made for the JR by local residents was not money given to FLC itself, neither was the crowdfunding money. Original donors contributed believing that the JR was a joint action between FLC and another environmental group. However, this was not the case and FLC submitted the JR alone. It is disgraceful to suggest that donors’ substantial donations should bail FLC out rather than being spent on seeing the JR through, restoring Longstanton’s ponds or getting a truly independent hydrology report to identify Longstanton’s problem. FLC unilaterally stopped the JR the day before the hearing. There were plenty of public meetings to encourage people to hand over money but we believe there was no public meeting so donors could approve the proposal to pull the hearing. Donors should have approved any cessation of the action – it was not FLC’s money or their place to make this decision unilaterally. Following that decision there should have been a public meeting to approve how the donations should be spent and whether donors agreed to their money being used to fund FLC costs. I also hope there is no suggestion that our donations will be used to fund the historic claims SCDC has against FLC and which donors were not told about when asked to support this JR. Going forward, at the very least there needs to be a full set of accounts published to indicate how donations have been spent to ensure that there has been no misuse of donations. Longstanton PC made a donation and should take this matter up to ensure there has been no misuse of public funds.