Legal

The government has given the green light to a £500m redevelopment of Manston Airport near Margate, ignoring advice from the Planning Inspectorate. The Department for Transport (DfT) has approved a redetermined Development Consent Order (DCO) for the airport, which was originally submitted in August 2018. The DCO, which was approved…

A collapsed specialist has been accused of “deliberately misrepresent[ing]” the credentials of operatives on a major job – and accidentally revealing this to its client on a video call. FEL Group, which made and installed infrastructure for data centres, went under in June, after what administrators at RSM UK said…

A millionaire who built what has been described as “Britain’s biggest man cave” has been jailed for six weeks after failing in his planning dispute with the local council. Graham Wildin, 70, of Cinderford in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, was sentenced to a short jail term at a court…

A Yorkshire-based director whose companies provided services to construction projects has been disqualified for 11 years, after attempting to defraud the Bounce Back Loan Scheme. Stephen Burke, 63, from Rotherham, overstated the turnover of his companies to secure £200,000 in taxpayer-funded loans to which he was not entitled during the…

Oil giant Esso has won an interim injunction to prevent protesters affecting construction work on its £90m pipeline redevelopment project. The oil firm, which is owned by US oil company ExxonMobil, aims to replace 56 miles of its 65 mile pipeline, running from Boorley Green in Southampton to its terminal…

A judge has told Balfour Beatty that it cannot force an architect to pick through reams of documents to see if any of them have a bearing on a £12m cladding-defects dispute. Mrs Justice Jefford ruled in the Technology and Construction Court that the contractor could not require architect Broadway…

A civils firm has been fined £600,000 for safety breaches after the death of a child on a site. Seven-year-old Conley Thompson went missing from home on 26 July 2015. His body was discovered by construction workers the following morning on the site at Bank End Road, Worsbrough, in South…

An extension to the runway at Southampton Airport is set to go ahead, after an appeal against it failed in court. This week, the Court of Appeal refused an appeal by a local campaign group, upholding the decision by Eastleigh Borough Council that the runway can be lengthened by 164…

Former employees at the UK subsidiary of Irish contractor Roadbridge have won the right to claim for unpaid wages that could add up to “significant” amounts. An employment tribunal has ruled that the company failed to comply with the obligations of aspects of employment law, which mandate that employees are…

Three former directors of contractor M+W are being sued over accusations that they are to blame for £320m worth of losses. MW High Tech Projects UK alleges its former directors signed three substantial development contracts for tenders that were “far too low”. Former managing director Spencer Baber, ex-chief financial officer…