Armada Way: work goes on

But Labour 'disappointed' at judicial review

Work to open up Plymouth city centre will go on despite a High Court ruling which has meant more delays in resolving the Armada Way ‘chaos’.

Campaigners fighting to save trees in the busy shopping area called for a judicial review to establish whether the felling which took place in March was lawful.

City council leader Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham) said the judicial review was no longer needed, because he scrapped the felling programme immediately after taking over the leadership following the May elections.

But yesterday the High Court ruled that the judicial review - brought on behalf of the Save the Trees of Armada Way group - should go ahead.

Cllr Evans said he is ‘disappointed’, but pledged that crucial work in Armada Way would go on. “We will not be deterred,” he said. “We will remove the stumps, we will reopen sections of Armada Way and clean-up the felled trees when we are able to do so.”

Large areas have been fenced off since the felling of 100 trees, which sparked a national outcry. The work was stopped in its tracks when an injunction was issued as they were being cut down. The furore led to the resignation of then-council leader Cllr Richard Bingley (Con, Southway).

Last week some fencing panels were moved to create walkways to allow shoppers to visit shops and cafes.

And Cllr Evans pledged that details of a new Armada Way scheme would be published for public consultation this summer, regardless of yesterday’s ruling.

He said: “We are disappointed that the High Court has not agreed to our application to withdraw the legal proceedings.

“The judicial review case is based on a decision that was made by the previous leader of the council and I overturned it on 19 May when I first took office.

“Therefore, whilst we are disappointed with the court’s decision and will now consider our next steps regarding the legal action, we are going to continue looking forward on the future of Armada Way and not dwell on the past.

“We want to focus on taking back control of Armada Way and make a city centre we all can be proud of. We will not be deterred.

“We will remove the stumps, we will reopen sections of Armada Way and clean-up the felled trees when we are able to do so. But most importantly we will be publishing our proposals for a new scheme this summer for consultation.”