PlanningResource,
3 December 2007
A man who says that a regeneration scheme has damaged his community is launching a High Court challenge to a compulsory purchase order for his home and business.
David Powell lives above his convenience store at Monfa Road, Sefton, Liverpool, and also owns a shop at 55 Humphrey Street, both of which are threatened by the order.
He is asking a top judge at London's High Court to quash Sefton Council's CPO insofar as it relates to his land
He is joined by two businesses that own land covered by the CPO, Belfields Ltd and Nextdom (Bootle) Ltd, who are each seeking similar orders to quash the parts of the CPO that relate to their land.
If they are successful, the judge will order the country's planning supremo, the communities secretary, to reconsider the matter in relation to their land.
Mr Powell, who has chaired the local Neighbourhood Action Group and undertaken much community work during his many years in the area, says that the CPO will cost him his job and his livelihood.
He claims that the decision to approve the CPO, taken by the Secretary of State, breached his human rights, and was not proper in law.
In a witness statement before the court, Mr Powell says the Klondyke community was once a friendly and viable one, with many generations of family living together in a close-knit neighbourhood.
He says it was a popular neighbourhood which was in demand for people looking for homes.
However, since the start of regeneration in 2004 and resulting compulsory acquisition of properties, he says the area has suffered from increasing anti-social behaviour, including vandalism and joyriding, and he says the trade in his shops has begun to decline.
He says he has had to reduce staff as a result, costing jobs to the local area.
The judge is expected to reserve his decision in order to give it in writing at a later date. The hearing continues.
The CPO is intended to redevelop the area with new single, two and three storey mixed tenure houses and apartments and new mixed use developments together with community facilities and improved open space provision.
