Time Limits

December 12th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

R ( Arthur ) v BARNET LBS ( “)”” ) EWHC 2933 ( Admin ) holds that Section 92 ( 3 ) of TCPA 1990 inserts a time limit condition on commencement of development into a planning permission that lacks any such condition.

It does not enable the remedy of a time limit consultation that is unlawful.

 

Accommodation for Asylum Seekers

November 16th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

Section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, read together with Regulations, imposes a duty on the Home Secretary to provide “ support” for asylum seekers who appear to her to be, or to be likely to become destitute. Someone who does not have adequate accommodation is destitute. Support includes accommodation. Under Section 98 she is under a duty to provide temporary support in the form of accommodation to an asylum seeker, as defined, who appears to be destitute, until a Section 98 decision is taken.

Cases brought by Ipswich Borough Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council (2022) EWHC 2868 (KB) concerned the lawful planning use  Hotels for which the Councils were local planning authority.  The Councils sought to take planning enforcement action. This was on the basis that use to accommodate asylum seekers would involve the use of the buildings as a  hostel, rather than a hotel, and thereby a material change of use without planning permission and  a breach of planning control. However, Holgate J refused the Councils injunctions under Section 187B of TCPA 1990. Read more »

 

Successive grants of planning permission

November 3rd, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

The Appeal to the Supreme Court in HILLSIDE PARKS LTD v SNOWDONIA NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY (2022) UKSC 30 raised issues of importance in planning law about the relationship between successive grants of planning permission for development of the same land. In particular, it concerned the effect of implementing one planning permission on implementing another planning permission relating to the same site. The case was concerned with operational development rather than change of use.

The Supreme Court made from para 19 observations on planning control and planning permissions, the duration of the latter, and the fundamental feature that a planning permission runs with the land. From para 22 the Court considered powers to vary a planning permission; at paras 26/27 the objective interpretation of a planning permission and what documents are significant in that connection, and from para 28 the position in relation to inconsistent planning permissions, and the leading case of PILKINGTON. Read more »

 

Permitted Development Rights

October 27th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

The exemption from the normal processes of development control for permitted development is held in R (Hayes) v Stroud DC (2022) EWHC 2661 (Admin) no longer to apply once the permitted use of a building within the planning unit for agricultural purposes  has ceased permanently and been replaced by another use or a combination of uses.

 

Community Infrastructure Levy

August 17th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

Gardiner v Hertsmere Borough Council (2022) EWCA Civ 1162 raises a question of statutory interpretation about the exemption from liability for “self-build” housing development under Regs 54A and 54B of the CIL Regs. The question is whether that exemption is available when planning per is granted retrospectively for such development. The answer is that it is not.

 

Planning and Environmental Exempt Information

June 17th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

The statutory framework for access to information at principal local authority meetings, including when the public may be excluded, as in Stride v Wiltshire Council (2022) EWHC 1476 (Admin), is set out in the Local Government Act 1972. Section 101A provides for such a meeting to be open to the public unless excluded by Resolution.

Read more »

 

Planning Decision

May 25th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

In R (Goesa) Ltd v Eastleigh BC (2022) EWHC 1221 (Admin) Holgate J. sets out the statutory framework in relation to a grant of planning permission as follows:-

Read more »

 

Overlapping Regulatory Regimes

May 24th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

In R (Vanbrugh Court Residents Association) v London Borough of Lambeth (2022) EWHC 1207 (Admin) a judicial review challenge to a grant of planning permission fails. The permission was for a roof level extension to a four storey block of flats so as to provide sixteen additional residential units and five external lifts. Thornton J. summarises the legal frameworks on material considerations (paras 18-22), overlapping regulatory regimes (para 23), duty of sufficient inquiry (para 24), the Court’s review of Planning Officer Reports (para 25), and interpretation of planning policy (para 26).  A local planning authority is entitled to place reliance on the effective operation of other regulatory regimes, but must assess them sufficiently so as to be able to satisfy itself that the other regulatory regime is capable of regulating the relevant issues. The existence of the other regulatory regime is a material planning consideration, to be weighed in the balance. Thornton J. adds (para 39) that the existence of the building control regime was a material planning consideration, to be weighed in the balance. It was open to the Council to place reliance upon the effective operation of the regime in determining the planning application, provided it satisfied itself that the building control regime was capable of regulating the relevant issues.

 

Heritage Assets

April 12th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

London Parks & Gardens Trust v Minister of State (2022) EWHC 829 (Admin) concerns whether there will be “substantial harm” to heritage assets, and consideration of the impact of a proposed development on relevant heritage assets. The “high test” is whether potential harm will be: “substantial”, rather than “less than substantial” for the purposes of the NPPF, that is a serious degree of harm to the asset’s significance. The significance of the historic asset does not have to be “drained away”. The test is “substantial harm”, not any gloss, such as “draining away”.

 

Breach of Planning Control

March 18th, 2022 by James Goudie KC in Planning and Environmental

On (1) effective service of Orders, (2) proceeding in landowners’ absence, and (3) continuing interim injunction, to restrain breach of planning control, see. North Northants Council v Mangan (2022) EWHC 536 (QB).