Expert advice leads to 3 year battle victory

Sanderson Weatherall’s expert witness services have contributed heavily to the successful outcome of a high profile compulsory purchase order (CPO) battle for one of the firm’s clients. The work revolved around a mammoth public inquiry which ran for over 38 days and gave rise to the very rare dismissal of the CPO in its entirety.

 

The dispute related to the proposed redevelopment of the Sugden’s Mill site adjacent to Brighouse town centre, a large part of which is owned by Younger Homes who had plans for a £100m mixed-use scheme. However, Calderdale Council attempted to enforce a CPO to reclaim the land so that they could progress with a development of their own, which included a new swimming pool, retail units and the construction of a road bridge.

 

As a result, Younger Homes filed an objection on the grounds that the council’s scheme was neither viable nor deliverable and Sanderson Weatherall was brought in to provide crucial evidence to support their claim. Richard Farr, compulsory purchase expert and Tim Westlake-Bryant, retail agent at the Manchester office provided expert market opinion, development appraisal and specialist CPO evidence on business disturbance.

 

Evidence was given on three fronts. First, Richard was asked to present evidence on the viability of the scheme proposed by the council, taking the level of compensation necessary to buy the site using CPO powers into account. Tim then provided evidence on the commercial viability of the scheme, comparing the cost of the council’s proposed development against its completed value. On both counts, they found that the values generated barely exceeded the cost, hence rendering the scheme financially unsustainable and undeliverable.

 

Finally, Richard provided expert opinion on the alternative scheme proposed by Younger Homes. After investigating the development appraisal, he found that the developer had come up with a viable and deliverable scheme which neither necessitated the use of CPO powers, nor the injection of public funds.

 

Richard Farr, director of rating and CPO services at Sanderson Weatherall said: “This was an extremely lengthy inquiry for a scheme of this proportion, demonstrating the complications both parties faced. The evidence we presented played a substantial part in the inquiry and resulted in the inspector on the case recommending that the Secretary of State did not confirm the compulsory purchase order the council had sought.

 

“It was an extremely gratifying result for all those involved and bears testament to Sanderson Weatherall’s ability to provide a multi-skilled, competent and influential team in high profile CPO cases such as this.”