The basic question in R (Corbett) v Cornwall Council (2020) EWCA 508 was whether the Council as LPA erred in law in granting planning permission for a development found to be in conflict with Development Plan (DP) policies for the protection of Areas of Great Landscape Value, but compliant with other relevant DP policies, including a DP policy encouraging development for tourism, and in accordance with the DP as a whole. The Court of Appeal held that the Council had not erred. It had correctly understood the relevant policies of the DP and applied those policies lawfully in considering whether the proposal accorded with the DP as a whole. The DP policies had to be read together.
Relevant policies of a DP May pull in different directions. It was for the Council, as LPA, to decide which DP policy should be given the greater weight in the particular decision. This was classically a matter of planning judgment for the Council as planning decision maker.