Raymond Stephen Pearce v Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy and Norfolk Vanguard Ltd

摘要

For the above reasons I uphold grounds 1 and 2 of the challenge. There is no justification for the court to withhold the relief sought by the claimant and so the defendant's decision letter dated 1 July 2020 to grant a development consent order for the Norfolk Vanguard Offshore Wind Farm together with the Norfolk Vanguard Offshore Wind Farm Order 2020 (SI 2020/706) must be quashed. The court's order is being made at a time when the application for a DCO in respect of Norfolk Boreas remains to be determined. The defendant will need to give careful consideration as to how the evaluation of cumulative impacts relating to development at Necton for both projects should be approached in each decision and whether, and if so, to what extent, the examination of the Vanguard project needs to be re-opened. The court was not asked during the hearing to express its opinion on those matters.