Camden New Journal - News: Borhters home appeal rejected

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Camden New Journal - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 20 March 2008

Brothers’ home appeal rejected

THE twin brothers hoping to build a dream home in the Vale of Health have lost an appeal against a judicial review to stop the works.
The Heath and Hampstead Society took Camden Council and Alex and Thalis Vlachos to the High Court last year after the Town Hall’s planning department gave the brothers permission to demolish a red-brick property in the pretty Hampstead enclave and build a five-bed home with a swimming pool.
Tax-payers now face a bill running into thousands of pounds to cover the costs of the council’s legal representatives and also paying for the society’s legal team. The society’s bill is estimated to be around £30,000.
The society said the planners should have turned down the application as it infringed on Metropolitan Open Land – the urban equivalent of the green belt, which has stiff planning guidelines.
But the brothers appealed, saying the original decision was correct.
It hinged on how law lords Lord Justice Waller, Lord Justice Sedley and Lord Justice Carnwath interpreted whether a building was “materially larger” than the one it was set to replace.
The society’s Martin Humphery said: “The judge accepted our interpretation – which happens to be exactly what we told Camden’s planning department. If they had won, it would have set a precedent for schemes on green-belt.”

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