The following email was sent to all supporters of the Mill Hill Action Group who are opposed to the opening of a school at the site of Wyevale Garden centre - No comment available from the school.
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From: Garden Centre
Date: 3 October 2011 10:28:23 GMT+01:00
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Press Release
Dear Supporters,
We apologise that you have not heard from us for a while, but we can assure you that we have been working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that the judicial review and claim against Barnet Council’s decision has the best opportunity of success. We do not want to fill your inbox’s with information until we have something significant to say…hence this email now!
The pre-action letter we sent to Barnet Council setting out our claim and alleging that they ignored the views of the elderly and disabled in deciding to grant planning permission to the school is attached to this email.
Barnet Council has now responded and they have accepted WE ARE RIGHT. They have agreed in writing that they failed to properly consider the views of the elderly and disabled in the decision to grant planning permission. They agree that they breached the Equalities Act 2010.
We win! The planning permission for the school will be quashed and the school will have no planning permission to do any work on the site and to build a school.
May we remind you of the process however: After the Jewish holidays (to be fair) we will issue the Judicial Review and Barnet Council will formally concede and the planning permission will be quashed.
The council may still decide to re-hear the planning application by the school. We argue that they need to undertake a new consultation and positively seek the views of the elderly, disabled and the community generally. However, they may attempt to sneak the hearing in quickly and rush it through.
If so, we’ll fight it again. The views of the elderly and disabled must be properly counted, assessed and we say, prioritised according to the Equalities Act 2010. The Council can’t get away from the fact that Free Schools, although encouraged by MP’s, have no statutory force that prioritises them. The Equalities Act 2010 ensures that the views of the elderly and disabled have that force and the courts have insisted that their views must be prioritised. If necessary, having won once, we can go back to the court and again take a judicial review if the Council insist on breaking the law.
This is why your donations have been so invaluable and we thank every person who has managed in these difficult times to find some money to help the community fight for their community (and a fight based on right and not riots!). Unfortunately, the Council and the school have forced us to take legal action as they refuse simply to listen and move to another site and we have no option but to ask you to keep those donations coming. They will be returned if possible (we’ll get some of our costs back for this application), but they provide us with the only method currently of forcing our voices to be heard, as it seems that without court action no one listens anymore to the majority in the community.
We attach a press release that we intend to issue. If you know of any reporters or journalists or have any contacts please help us by sending this to them. We think it’s a good story and the public have a right to know the truth.
Congratulations to us all.
Zoe
on behalf of Daniel’s friends and supporters
--------------------------
From: Garden Centre
Date: 3 October 2011 10:28:23 GMT+01:00
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Press Release
Dear Supporters,
We apologise that you have not heard from us for a while, but we can assure you that we have been working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that the judicial review and claim against Barnet Council’s decision has the best opportunity of success. We do not want to fill your inbox’s with information until we have something significant to say…hence this email now!
The pre-action letter we sent to Barnet Council setting out our claim and alleging that they ignored the views of the elderly and disabled in deciding to grant planning permission to the school is attached to this email.
Barnet Council has now responded and they have accepted WE ARE RIGHT. They have agreed in writing that they failed to properly consider the views of the elderly and disabled in the decision to grant planning permission. They agree that they breached the Equalities Act 2010.
We win! The planning permission for the school will be quashed and the school will have no planning permission to do any work on the site and to build a school.
May we remind you of the process however: After the Jewish holidays (to be fair) we will issue the Judicial Review and Barnet Council will formally concede and the planning permission will be quashed.
The council may still decide to re-hear the planning application by the school. We argue that they need to undertake a new consultation and positively seek the views of the elderly, disabled and the community generally. However, they may attempt to sneak the hearing in quickly and rush it through.
If so, we’ll fight it again. The views of the elderly and disabled must be properly counted, assessed and we say, prioritised according to the Equalities Act 2010. The Council can’t get away from the fact that Free Schools, although encouraged by MP’s, have no statutory force that prioritises them. The Equalities Act 2010 ensures that the views of the elderly and disabled have that force and the courts have insisted that their views must be prioritised. If necessary, having won once, we can go back to the court and again take a judicial review if the Council insist on breaking the law.
This is why your donations have been so invaluable and we thank every person who has managed in these difficult times to find some money to help the community fight for their community (and a fight based on right and not riots!). Unfortunately, the Council and the school have forced us to take legal action as they refuse simply to listen and move to another site and we have no option but to ask you to keep those donations coming. They will be returned if possible (we’ll get some of our costs back for this application), but they provide us with the only method currently of forcing our voices to be heard, as it seems that without court action no one listens anymore to the majority in the community.
We attach a press release that we intend to issue. If you know of any reporters or journalists or have any contacts please help us by sending this to them. We think it’s a good story and the public have a right to know the truth.
Congratulations to us all.
Zoe
on behalf of Daniel’s friends and supporters
1 comment:
Hi, are you able to share the press release at this time?
If this succeeds what do the 'actiongroup' expect to happen to the building?
My guess is that it will remain empty.
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