A LEADING planning barrister has stated that a legal challenge against a proposed golf course is "hopeless".
Christopher Katkowski QC was hired by developer Longshot to give his opinion on a proposed private members' course and luxury hotel at Cherkley Court near Leatherhead for which the company has planning permission.
Longshot made the move after residents' group the Cherkley Campaign, supported by the Surrey branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the planning decision.
But this week Mr Katkowski said many of the grounds given for the review were "pointless technicalities" which would be unlikely to result in the planning permission being quashed.
Mr Katkowski, described by the Legal 500 directory as "the country's leading planning barrister", said: "I have no doubt at all that were a judicial review to be lodged on any or all of these grounds it would fail. It would be a clearly hopeless claim."
But CPRE branch director Andy Smith said Longshot was "running scared" and trying to bully those opposed to the scheme into backing down.
He said: "If they really think we've no chance of success, why are they getting so worked up about our campaign?
"Why don't they just sit back and let us walk into their trap?
"The reason for all this panic is that they know full well that the Cherkley Campaign has every chance of winning this case and overturning Mole Valley District Council's decision.
"They are petrified that in court the process by which the council ended up granting planning permission for the Cherkley development will be shown up as being fundamentally flawed."
But Longshot director Ollie Vigors said the campaigners were not acting in the public interest.
He said: "We believe that, whilst fundraising, the Cherkley Campaign may be misleading people about their prospects of success.
"We also believe that fighting a judicial review will cost the local council and thus the taxpayer a significant sum of money, which cannot be in the local interest."
In response, Cherkley Campaign chairman and vice president of CPRE Surrey Tim Harrold said he was confident of the group's case.
He said: "In our view if this permission is allowed to stand it will set a dreadful precedent, not only in Mole Valley but for the green belt as a whole.
"We do not consider that it is in the public interest for this development to go ahead."
For Mr Katkowski's full opinion, see pages 18 and 19.
