Fury as top judge backs new battery energy site

'JUSTICE DENIED WITH FUNDAMENTAL ERRORS MADE', SAY OPPONENTS

- RACHEL ALEXANDER

COMMUNITY campaigners claim ‘justice has been denied’ after a planning challenge was dismissed at the High Court.

The Beacon Action Group has fiercely criticised the planning inspectorate, and now the High Court, for allowing a controversial green belt development to go ahead.

Plans to build a 3.2 hectare Battery Energy Storage System off Chapel Lane in Great Barr were first presented in 2021.

Walsall Council refused the application, and the applicant, Anesco Ltd, appealed the decision to the planning inspectorate.

In January, it was announced the inspector, George Baird, had sided with Anesco, granting the development to go ahead.

In March, Walsall Council challenged the inspector’s decision at the High Court believing the inspector had made ‘fundamental errors’ in coming to his conclusion.

But in September, the court delivered the final blow by dismissing the appeal on the basis that the inspector’s reasoning was adequate.