York Guides

When lawyers were forced to pull out because of a wrangle over legal aid, mature student Robert Collins was left to fight a team of barristers and solicitors as he argued against the plans to redevelop York's flagship Barbican Centre.
Members of the Save Our Barbican (SOB) group travelled to London yesterday to seek a judicial review of York Council's decision to grant planning consent to redevelop the complex.
However, after a day of legal argument SOB member Mr Collins had to leap into the breach when the group's lawyers withdrew from the case.
Mr Justice Elias refused to adjourn the matter until arguments over legal aid could be resolved so Mr Collins, 54, who lives near the site, was left alone to tackle the complex legal issues raised by the case – with a team of barristers and solicitors ranged against him.
Mr Collins told the judge he was unable to deal with the byzantine planning issues without legal representation but asked the judge to consider carefully his challenge on the documents. He was on his feet for only a few minutes before barristers for York Council and developers Barbican Venture (York) Ltd began putting forward their arguments.
Mr Collins and another York resident – Marjorie Anderson, of Regent Street, who was not in court – are challenging the city council's decision to grant planning permission for the project last September.
Objectors argue the council "irrationally" decided it did not need to have a detailed environmental impact study before granting consent to redevelop the Barbican and the nearby Kent Street car park.
Before having to withdraw from the case, barrister Gordon Nardell told the judge the information on which the council made its decision was "riddled with errors of principle from beginning to end".
Mr Nardell asked the judge to adjourn the case so attempts could be made to resolve the "grudge match" between objectors and the Legal Services Commission (LSC) over legal funding for the case.
He argued the LSC's insistence that members of the "loose support group" SOB should have to contribute half of the costs of the case – which could reach £20,000 in total - was against its own guidelines.
Resisting an adjournment, Christopher Boyle, for York Council, said the authority would benefit to the tune of £10.33m from the project, £6m of which would be spent on refurbishing the Barbican and the rest on building a new swimming pool on the adjoining car park and renewing other swimming pools in the city. But he told the judge the delays were so damaging to the project that "ultimately, there may not be a scheme at all".
David Forsdick, for Barbican Venture, said that in June last year, a housebuilder made a £12m offer for a long lease of the residential part of the scheme but that price had since fallen to £7.3m and the whole development project was now "becoming marginal".
With capital values "plummeting", the barrister said any further delay could end the entire project.
Mr Justice Elias refused to grant an adjournment, on the ground it would gravely prejudice the city council and developers. The judge also refused permission to appeal against his decision.
Without full legal aid funding in place, Mr Nardell and SOB's solicitors withdrew from the case, leaving Mr Collins to battle on alone.
The case continues.