Hewitt & Gilpin Successfully Challenge John Lewis Development at Sprucefield

Brian Roulston an associate in our Litigation and Dispute Resolution department acted on behalf of a client in opposing a planning application to build a John Lewis store and associated retail units at Sprucefield, Lisburn.

The advices in connection with the planning application given to our client were justified when, in February 2013, the Minister for the Department of Environment announced that development at Sprucefield would be restricted to commercial stores selling ‘bulky goods’, something which our client had long stated constituted a sensible approach.

The decision was an important one for a number of reasons, not least for the survival and sustainability of other local towns and cities such as Belfast, Lisburn, Craigavon and Banbridge, given the detrimental impact the proposed development would have had in these places, particularly in the current economic retail climate where vacancy rates in town and city centres in Northern Ireland continue to rise.