News / Arts
New legal challenge to Picture House plan
Plans to redevelop the Whiteladies Picture House could face further delay by the prospect of a new legal challenge, Bristol24/7 has learned.
Councillors approved updated plans in November to turn the derelict listed building into a new cinema with six flats built within as part of the development.
This followed a judicial review application brought by campaigner David Fells into an original approval by councillors in the summer.
Bristol City Council (BCC) admitted its approval for plans to convert the building were unlawful, after Fells said the council had not properly followed national guidelines, leaving the building “vulnerable”.
Three new conditions were applied to the plans which council officers said would ensure the building could only be developed as a cinema.
But speaking this morning about the potential challenge, Fells said the council had failed to answer why it had avoided insisting on a legal requirement to protect listed buildings and ensure developers were not unduly profiting from causing damage to such buildings.
No formal judicial review application has been made so far, but a letter to the council is demanding an answer to that question, with Fells saying: “This is about how the council does its business – will it ignore objections from the public and bend the rules for developers to make larger profits, or will it move ahead and take the chance to say it is 100 per cent correct, following national planning policy and be fully accountable.”
He added: “In getting this right, developers are forced to make the right decisions and make the best development they can, instead of bowing to the temptation to cut corners and only doing the minimum needed to keep English Heritage happy.
“We have not put in a judicial review yet – just put in a letter to the council to ask why they have not gone through proper procedure. If they give a good answer, we will accept that.”
The challenge has been met with anger by supporters of the Everyman plan, with a spokeswoman for the owners of the building saying: “It’s our view that his legal challenge is vexatious, and that David Fells simply wants to derail the plans and to force Everyman Cinemas to walk away.”
A meeting has been called for the new year to “discuss how, as a community, we might persuade him [Fells] to withdraw so that we are not delayed even further”.
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