Oakdene Homes plc

Dispute with ITV Meridian regarding planning application

Oakdene Homes plc ('Oakdene'), the housebuilder, announces that a writ has been received from ITV Meridian seeking an order of specific performance of the planning application for the former TV studios at Southampton. In the opinion of the directors and their legal advisers the action is without merit. 

Under the terms of the contract for the purchase of the site by Oakdene from ITV, ITV is due an additional payment depending on the number of units for which planning permission is granted, up to a maximum payment of £2.5m. ITV is claiming that Oakdene has deliberately delayed their planning application in order to delay the payment of this additional sum. In fact Oakdene is looking to obtain planning at the earliest opportunity and has been working with internal and external planning advisors to obtain the best planning permission on the site. Unfortunately, Oakdene has been delayed in submitting an application by a requirement of the Local Authority for various environmental reports including a migrating Bird study, Riverside ecological study flood assessment risk and a number of other site specific reports. These reports require studies which can take up to a year to complete and further require detailed discussions with the city council and Planning Officers before a planning application can be made. An application of this size is a major application and cannot be made without the agreement of the local authority. All the studies are now complete and Oakdene expects to make a formal planning application within the next 3 months.

www.oakdene-homes.co.uk

ENQUIRIES:

Oakdene Homes plc                              Tel: 01737 249393

Carl Turpin, Chief Executive

Robert Boot, Finance Director

Panmure Gordon                                 Tel: 020 7459 3600

Dominic Morley