clear however is that the detailed process of selection,
evaluation, preparation, design, consultation and formal
consideration of a new proposal would begin anew, with all the
gestation time this implies. If the programme for the current
project is applied, this suggests approximately five years of
further work. We know that a number of survivors who saw the
outcome of the HMC will not have lived long enough to learn of
the outcome of this Inquiry. Another five years of renewed
planning would only but add to their number.
15.172 Whilst the matter of timing alone would not be of
determinative weight, any such new scheme and its location
must after all achieve HMC expectations and meet development
plan and statutory planning requirements. But achieving a
memorial within the lifetime of survivors, so seeking to honour
the living as well as the dead, has a resounding moral
importance that can legitimately, in my view, be considered a
material consideration and a public benefit of great
importance, meriting considerable weight in the planning
balance in this case.”
111. If, as I consider to be the case, installation of the Memorial in the Gardens is
contrary to the statutory purpose of section 8 of the 1900 Act then in my judgment
this is a material consideration, given the Inspector’s emphasis on the importance of
the need to deliver the Memorial within the lifetime of the Holocaust survivors. I note
that, in May 2020 at least, the Government Legal Department appeared to be of the
same view:
“….All substantive matters relating to the planning application
will be for the appointed Inspector to consider and to report to
the Minister of State in accordance with the procedure laid
down by The Town and Country Planning (Inquiries
Procedure) (England) Rules 2000 (“the Inquiries Procedure
Rules”). Those matters include section 8(1) of the 1900 Act,
insofar as it is engaged by the planning application. The
Inspector must consider all material considerations, including
any relevant legislation, in preparing the inquiry report under
rule 17 of the Inquiries Procedure Rules. All parties to the
inquiry will have the opportunity to make submissions on those
matters to the Inspector at the inquiry.”
(pre-action correspondence dated 18 May 2020)
Raising a new point on appeal
112. The third aspect of Mr Mould’s response on this ground was that the Inspector
cannot be criticised for not considering the 1900 Act when it was not raised before
40