High Court rules on Armada Way

City council leader says judicial review is 'redundant'

The High Court has refused Plymouth City Council’s application for a judicial review into the felling of trees in Armada Way to be thrown out.

Council leader Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham) claims the review is redundant now that he has overturned the previous administration’s plan to remove trees as part of a massive redevlopment in the city centre.

A group called Save the Trees of Armada Way asked the court to decide if it was lawful for the previous council leadership to order the felling of the trees. But Cllr Evans says the process is now “academic.”

He fears the legal processes means delays to progress in the city centre where large areas of Armada Way remain fenced off.

But in a decision published on today [Thursday], Mrs Justice Lang disagreed, saying the council’s application to abandon the review is ‘misconceived’.

She said events since the felling was stopped in March had not rendered the issues “wholly academic.” There may, however, be no need for a hearing if the two parties can reach agreement.

No date has yet been set for the hearing. 

At a recent meeting of Plymouth City Council, Cllr Evans said delays caused by the judicial review were holding up work to sort out the ‘mess’ in the city centre.

The application for a judicial review into the previous administration’s decision followed the controversial felling of 100 trees in the dead of night earlier this year. It sparked a national outcry.

Work to cut down the remaining trees was stopped after a last-minute injunction. The furore led to Cllr Bingley’s resignation.

Cllr Evans overturned the decision to start the original scheme, which means it will no longer go ahead.

“The judicial review is a dark cloud over the future of Armada Way,” he told the meeting. “It is unnecessary and academic, and it is costing taxpayers thousands of pounds.

“The legal action is based on a redundant decision. It is based on a decision that I have overturned. It is off the table, it has been binned, and to continue the Pythonesque, it has ceased to be.

“We must sort out Armada Way for the benefit of the whole city. The future of Plymouth city centre is in our hands.”