Rural Integrity's (Lisburn 01) and related Limited companies Application
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | McCloskey J |
| Judgment Date | 06 March 2020 |
| Neutral Citation | [2020] NIQB 25 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 06 March 2020 |
1
Neutral Citation No: [2020] NIQB 25
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
(subject to editorial corrections)*
Ref: McC11208
Delivered: 06/03/20
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
________
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION (JUDICIAL REVIEW)
________
IN THE MATTER OF 32 APPLICATIONS BY RURAL INTEGRITY
(LISBURN 01) LIMITED AND RELATED LIMITED COMPANIES FOR LEAVE
TO APPLY FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW
________
McCLOSKEY LJ
Preface
[1] There are 32 judicial review cases belonging to a readily identifiable cohort. In
every case the Applicant is a registered limited company. The companies concerned
are:
• Rural Integrity (Lisburn 01) Limited.
• Rural Integrity (Lisburn 02) Limited.
• Rural Integrity (Lisburn 03) Limited.
• Rural Integrity (Lisburn 05) Limited.
• Rural Integrity (Lisburn 06) Limited
• Rural Integrity (Lisburn 07) Limited.
• Clogher Environmental Limited (“Clogher”).
• Portinode Environmental Limited (“Portinode”).
The common denominator shared by all of the Applicant companies is Mr Gordon
Duff who is a director (not necessarily the sole director) of each of them.
[2] These 32 judicial review challenges are brought against the following planning
authorities:
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(i) Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council (“LCCC”): 26 cases.
(ii) The Planning Appeals Commission (“PAC”): two cases.
(iii) Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (“FODC” – the Portinode case): one
case.
(iv) Mid and East Antrim Borough Council (“MEABC”): two cases.
(v) Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council (“ANBC”): one case.
[3] In the great majority of the cases the Applicant company is challenging
decisions of the planning authorities identified above whereby development
permission authorising the construction of one or more dwelling houses in the
countryside was granted. In the remaining (minority) of cases the PAC is the agency
under challenge because it made decisions allowing appeals against planning
permission refusals of the planning authority concerned.
[4] The court has been alert to the interests of the successful planning applicants
throughout. From an early stage strenuous efforts have been made to ensure that the
proceedings were brought to the attention of these persons. Subsequently the court
developed the mechanism of general “Judicial Review Court Notices”, addressed to
everyone with an interest in any of these cases. The court also arranged specially
convened hearings on notice to every interested party, stimulating the attendance of
many of those concerned. This provided a forum for oral representations to the court
in a context where most of the interested parties were unrepresented. The interested
parties have also been at liberty to make written representations to the court at all
stages. The most recent phase of these proceedings, culminating in the rulings
contained in this judgment, had ingredients of both written and oral representations
from these parties.
[5] The 32 applications for leave to apply for judicial review were lodged on
sundry dates spanning the period March 2018 to September 2019. These cases have
been the subject of a succession of case management orders and listings during the
period in question. Leave to apply for judicial review was granted by a deputy judge
of the High Court in one of these cases only, namely Rural Integrity (Lisburn 01) – v –
PAC [No 2018/26370/01 – “the first PAC case”] by an order dated 07 June 2018. In a
context wherein the court has been engaged in a continuous struggle to identify
reasonable, sensible and cost effective case management mechanisms for the whole of
the cohort, the first PAC case progressed ahead of all of the others, in which no leave
ruling or any other definitive ruling has been made to date.
[6] In order to appreciate panoramically the status quo relating to the entire cohort
of cases it is necessary to focus particularly on the first PAC case.
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6 cases
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Christopher James Gordon (acting in capacity as director of Orianna Investments Limited) and Christopher Gordon (acting in capacity as director of Fletcher Gordon Limited) and Ulster Bank Limited and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and Various names individuals (unrelated to this application) and Mr Andrew Baillie Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority
...of the negligence claim supplemented by the Order 53 style particulars. As McCloskey LJ stated in Rural Integrity (Lisburn 01) Limited [2020] NIQB 25: “It does not follow inexorably that the cases must be struck out, as this draconian consequence, though doubtless envisaged as appropriate i......
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Duff's (Gordon) Application (Leave stage) and in the matter of a decision of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council
...Court Rules in the manner in which they had been brought: see Re Rural Integrity (Lisburn 01) and Related Limited Companies’ Applications [2020] NIQB 25. A small number of them have been permitted to proceed: see my judgment in Re Portinode Environmental Ltd’s Application [2021] NIQB 31. Mr......
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Duff's (Gordon) Application (Leave stage) and in the matter of a decision of Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council
...for judicial review both in his own name and by using a variety of 2 corporate vehicles –see Re Rural Integrity (Lisburn 01) Limited [2020] NIQB 25 and Re Duff’s Application [2022] NIQB 11. [4] Leave is resisted by the Council and the notice party on three discrete grounds: (i) Standing; (i......
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Clogher Environmental Group Limited for leave to apply for Judicial Review and in the matter of a decision of The Planning Appeals Commission
...which raised materially similar issues, in his ruling in Re Rural Integrity (Lisburn 01) and Related Limited Companies’ Applications [2020] NIQB 25, a judgment delivered on 6 March 2020. As discussed in my judgment on leave in the Portinode case, McCloskey LJ considered that, in each of the......
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