WAVERLEY Borough Council is facing the prospect of yet another costly judicial review, after it was confirmed the council’s decision to grant outline planning consent for 1,800 houses at Dunsfold Park will now go before a High Court judge as well as a planning inquiry.

The Protect Our Waverley campaign group - which fiercely objects to putting housing on the borough’s largest brownfield site - has had its application for a judicial review into the way the Dunsfold Park planning application was resolved, approved by the High Court.

The application will now proceed as a full judicial review hearing. It will be held as soon as possible after June 20 – and before the Dunsfold Park public inquiry opens on July 18, in order for a decision to be reached before the inquiry begins.

The judicial review announcement is a further upset to Waverley’s hopes of getting its Draft Local Plan adopted. Being allowed to build up to 2,600 new homes at the airfield is the cornerstone of how it will meet government targets to build 10,000 new homes by 2032. The Local Plan is due to be examined to determine if it is sound at a public hearing starting on June 27.

It also comes just months after Waverley won a High Court case against its handling of the Brightwells regeneration scheme in Farnham, and just weeks before the council is set to fight another judicial review instigated by a consortium of developers challenging the Farnham Neighbourhood Plan.