Nigel Davies

Many of you will know that our Berry Hill Road lawyer filed two applications for Judicial Review of Adderbury Parish Council’s decisions concerning the Milton Road land and its related restrictive covenant.  I have just received notification from the Parish Council Proper Officer, Theresa Goss, that both applications have been dismissed.  The judge who considered the applications has refused them and, in a footnote to his decision, has stated his opinion that the application is “totally without merit; as well as now being wholly academic, the claim is in my judgement without any foundation at all“.

Below is a link to the judge’s decision on JR No 2.  It is clear from this that he has also dismissed JR No1 but the formal notice for JR No 1 is awaited and will be added to this blog when it is available.  It was always my personal view that this lawyer hoped to bully and intimidate the parish council into changing the restrictive covenant on the Milton Road land to suit the parish council minority group’s desire to abort the intentions of Cherwell District Council and the developers.  I am relieved that his tactics have not worked and I salute the courage of my fellow parish councillors in resisting this legal mumbo jumbo.

The one remaining concern is that the judge made no order for costs which means the parish council (in reality Adderbury Council Tax payers) may be unable to recover its costs from Mr Davies.  There is something wrong with our legal system if a JR application can be dismissed so comprehensively but the body complained about has to bear the costs (more than £5,000) without recourse.  Perhaps Mr Davies will be sufficiently contrite to offer the parish councils its costs but I don’t suppose any of us are holding our breath.

Before Mr Davies starts scratching his quill, I make the point that I write as an individual parish councillor and am not attempting to speak for the parish council as a whole.  However, the JR decision is a public document so I trust Mr Davies will put his quill back in its rack.

17_08_09 Davies JR No2 refusal