High Court decision due as Stokey Local campaigners launch second Sainsbury’s fight

Protestors showed their opposition to the plans for a new Sainsbury’s by taking part in a ‘bug parade’ late last year: Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

Campaigners from pressure group Stokey Local could find out in May whether their long and complex legal fight to quash plans for a Stoke Newington Sainsbury’s has succeeded.

The group has announced that it will launch a second legal fight challenging Hackney Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the contentious Wilmer Place Sainsbury’s scheme.

Stokey Local supporter Nick Perry has sent Hackney Council a letter giving notice of his intention to apply for a judicial review (styled JR2) to quash the decision made by the council’s planning sub-committee at a meeting in December last year.

The sub-committee had already approved an earlier, identical application, which is the subject of the first judicial review (JR1), set to be heard in May.

Stokey Local’s email to supporters stated: “We are asking that the first and second Judicial Reviews be joined together and heard together. If this happens, then we should know in May whether the planning decision was lawful or not.”

The email added: “If we win JR1 and JR2, then the developer is back to square one and will need to make a fresh planning application. They may of course choose to submit a further identical application and hope that the Council can ‘go through the motions’ of giving it appropriate consideration.

“However, by then we will have had a series of elections and we may find that the composition of the planning committee has changed. Equally, this time, we may be able to persuade our local MP to support a ‘call in’. So potentially it will be a long campaign; there may even be a JR3!”

The saga of the supermarket plans has now lasted years, and campaigners have taken part in protests such as last year’s ‘bug parade’ and a ‘zombie march’ to highlight alleged impacts the development would have on Abney Park, a heritage site and important nature reserve.

Newmark Properties, the developer behind the scheme, has argued the new supermarket will bring benefits such as jobs and more “competitiveness and choice”.

Related:

Controversial Sainsbury’s application passed (again) by Hackney Council

Sainsbury’s N16 – if you build it they will come