In JONES v ISLE OF ANGLESEY COUNTY COUNCIL (2024) EWHC 2582 (Admin) Mould J at para 32 restated the principles upon which the Court acts when faced with an allegation that a Planning Committee has ben misled by Officer advice. The Court will not read a Planning Officer’s Report with undue rigour, but with reasonable benevolence, bearing in mind that such Reports are written for Councillors with local knowledge. The question for the Court will always be whether, on a fair reading of the Report as a whole, the Officer had misled the Committee in a material way on a matter bearing on their decision, and the error had not been corrected.

Mould J found that there was no such error on this case. At paras 52 and 53 he stated that in considering whether the use of a building has changed from its former use to a new use, the decision-maker can and should take into account both the physical state of the building and its actual use or intended use or attempted use. Each of those matters is capable of being relevant to the question whether the use of the building has changed from its former use to a new use. The relative importance of any or all of those matters will depend on the circumstances of the given case.

A Ministry of Justice Consultation seeks views by 9 December 2024 on options to bring UK policies into compliance with its obligations under the ACCESS TO JUSTICE provisions of the Aarhus Convention to make provision for (i) public access to ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION, (ii) participation in ENVIRUNMENTAL DECISION-MAKING, and (iii) access to justice in CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENTAL DECISIONS.

On 22 September 2024 the Ministry of Housing,  Communities & Local Government has. Published a Policy Paper, “ Brownfield Passport : Making the Most of Urban Land “, inviting views on action that could be taken through the planning system to support the development of brownfield land in urban areas. It proposes options for a form of BROWNFIELD PASSPORT, which would be more specific about the development that should be regarded as acceptable.  T he default answer to suitable proposals would be a straightforward : “ Yes “.

The proposals relate to the principle, the scale, and the form of development, and to the potential wider use of LOCAL DEVELOPMENT ORDERS. These would grant area-wide permissions.

A series of questions are posed.

In R ( FRIENDS OF WEST OXFORDSHIRE COTSWOLDS ) v WEST OXFORDSHIRE DC ( 2024 ) EWHC 2291 ( Admin ) there are applied the GENERAL PRINCIPLE ( BODDINGTON ) that, once pronounced unlawful by a Court, an administrative act is recognized as never having had legal effect, and the GENERAL PRINCIPLE ( WHITLEY ) that where operations do not comply with a planning permission , read together with its conditions, they would be unauthorised and unlawful. The Court states the conditions for the latter principle to apply.