DELIGHTED factory bosses have scored yet another victory in a long running legal saga over a glass plant near Chester.
Staff at the Quinn Glass plant at Elton, which employs more than 700 workers, are celebrating after two high court judges at the Court of Appeal threw out a claim by bitter rivals Ardagh Glass that Cheshire West and Chester Council had no power to grant retrospective planning permission for the plant.
Speaking after the victory on Thursday, Adrian Curry, director from Quinn Glass, said: “We are delighted with the result of the Court of Appeal today.
“It was an experienced and robust court and I’m glad they had no difficulty getting it right.”
Bosses at the plant, which has been running for more than four years, had originally been brought to court by bitter trade rival Ardagh Glass, who said Quinn had built the factory without proper planning consent.
A retrospective planning application had also been withdrawn following the successful legal challenge.
A couple of months ago the plans were once again approved, this time by the strategic planning committee of Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC).
Earlier this week, the legal wrangle was taken to the Court of Appeal and thrown out by two high court judges.
Robert McCracken QC, on behalf of Ardagh, argued that European law prevented the granting of retrospective planning permission for any development which required an environmental impact assessment.
He argued that where development had been carried out without compliance with the European EIA Directive the only course was to knock down the development and start again.
Lord Justice Sullivan, giving judgment, said that this argument was “an affront to common sense”.
He added: “It would be very surprising if non-compliance with the EIA Directive could not be regularised in appropriate circumstances.”
Agreeing with this judgment, the presiding judge, Lord Justice Jacob, said that the suggestion that it would always be necessary to undo a development whatever anyone thought of it was “so absurd” that it could not be European Community law.
The court found that the legal position was so clear that it was not necessary to hear from either CWaC or Quinn Glass.
The court decided that there was no justification for referring the point to the European Court of Justice and they also refused Ardagh leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.