Armada Way project thrown into confusion

COURT RULING MEANS COUNCIL HAS TO RETHINK ITS PLANS

- WILLIAM TELFORD

THE £12.7 million redevelopment of Plymouth’s Armada Way has been thrown into chaos, with work potentially stopped for months.

An injunction preventing the removal of the city centre area’s remaining trees was upheld by a High Court judge late last Friday, meaning no more trees can be chopped down – and therefore the revamp cannot proceed.

Action group Straw (Save the Trees of Armada Way) will now press ahead with a judicial review, which could take up to four months to be resolved. It means the whole issue is likely to become a central part of Plymouth City Council elections on May 4.

The council is now “considering the full implications” of the judge’s decision. The judicial review could decide that the local authority acted illegally when it progressed a project that led to 119 trees being felled at night.

Straw members were delighted when their injunction preventing the removal of 19 remaining trees was upheld in London’s Royal Courts of Justice. Straw’s Mark Thomas told The Herald: “It’s really good news. We will go for the judicial review now. That will happen.”