Permission Granted to Challenge the Forestry Commission’s decision to screen out an Environmental Impact Assessment at Greencroft, Lanchester, County Durham
Public law & judicial review, Planning & environment, Cornerstone Climate
David Lintott acted for Lanchester Properties Limited
R (Lanchester Properties Ltd) v the Forestry Commission and ors AC-2025-LDS-000108 – 30/01/26
On this renewed application for permission to bring a claim for judicial review of the Forestry Commission’s decision, Mrs Justice Hill DBE sitting in the Planning Court granted permission to the Claimant to argue that the Forestry Commission had acted irrationally in deciding that there would be no likely significant effects, and therefore that an Environmental Impact Assessment was not required in accordance with the applicable Regulations, when screening out the Greencroft forestry proposals on landscape and heritage grounds. She also determined that it was arguable that the reasons provided for the decision were deficient.
The case is significant because of the scale of the Greencroft proposal. The proposal measures 290.73 hectares, with a net planted area of 245 hectares. The total area of conifers planted in England in the year ending March 2025 was 680 hectares. Just the Sitka spruce element of this scheme represents nearly 30% of the total conifer area planted nationally in the previous year. It represents a national scale of planting on a single site – a site in respect of which the Forestry Commission had decided there would be no likely significant landscape character and visual effects without requiring an impact assessment to identify those effects and assess their likely significance. The applicant had commissioned a Landscape Character Appraisal which identified multiple areas within the scheme as being sensitive to woodland creation, yet the final planting plan showed many of these areas planted.
The Court also determined that there should be an Aarhus Costs cap in place limiting the costs payable by either side to £35,000.
David Lintott acted for the Lanchester Properties Ltd. Cornerstone Barristers regularly acts for both Local Authorities and Developers in a wide range of public law matters. Ned Westaway of FTB Chambers appeared for the Defendant, Edward-Arash Abedian appeared for the First Interested Party (Forestry Carbon Sequestration Fund II) and Alice Richardson of Trinity Chambers appeared for the Third Interested Party (Newcastle City Council on behalf of North East Community Forest). For more information please contact 020 7242 4986 or email clerks@cornerstonebarristers.com.
