Rare mushrooms stop housing development » Housing » 24dash.com

Rare mushrooms have stopped developers building houses on the banks of two former reservoirs.

A High Court judge has ruled that the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) was right to designate the land near Cardiff as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The decision of Mr Justice Andrew Collins could block plans by the landowners, Western Power Distribution Investments, to develop the site.

The reservoirs, built between 1860 and 1880, are no longer needed and the owners want to build houses there.

The CCW designated the site on the banks of the Lisvane and Llanishen reservoirs to protect what it claims is an internationally important population of Waxcap fungi.

Western Power said that the CCW acted in a way that was "premature, arbitrary and unfair."

But in his decision today backing the CCW, Mr Justice Collins said: "The decision was in the end based on the acceptance that the number of species found in Llanishen justified the notification.

"Whether or not it was the best site was not the issue. I have no doubt that the CWW was entitled to conclude as it did.

"There was ample evidence before it that the number of species made this an important site."

He said the site was of international importance because of the large number of species of fungi on it.

CCW identified 28 species of hygrocybe - the Waxcap - on the site. This put it over the benchmark for international importance, which is set at more than 22 species.

Western Power argued that the CCW had too little information to arrive at the conclusion that this was something special in fungi-rich mid and south Glamorgan.

John Steel QC, for the developers, told the judge that CCW wrongly took into account an alleged threat of "unsympathetic development" on the site, and had reached an "arbitrary and unfair" decision.

John Howell QC, for CCW, said the decision to protect the site was taken because of its scientific interest, not because of the plans for development.

The judge, dismissing the claim, pointed out that the SSSI notification did not necessarily preclude development on at least of part of the site.

Copyright Press Association 2007