Business park — Application for planning permission — Deemed refusal — Appeal to Secretary of State — Recent modification to structure plan — Proposal in advance of local plan consideration — Secretary of State dismissed appeal — Whether decision of Secretary of State contained any error of law
The applicant company applied for outline planning permission for a business park on 73 hectares of land at Crawley. In April 1988 the Secretary of State for the Environment, on the recommendation of the appointed inspector who had held an inquiry, dismissed an appeal brought by the applicants against a deemed refusal by the local planning authority to grant permission. The applicants applied under section 245 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 to quash the decision, contending that it was unclear and illogical.
Parallel with the planning application and appeal, a modification of the structure was suggested, and publication of a modification to include a business park in the area of Crawley/Gatwick was issued in April 1988; the implications of this modification would then need to be carried through the local plan procedures.
The Secretary of State’s reason for dismissing the appeal was that “to grant planning permission for the proposed development in advance of the local plan process would be premature … a business park is too detailed for the structure plan”; the Secretary of State saw no compelling need to justify dispensing with that process. In reaching his conclusion that the necessary local plan changes must be made first, the Secretary of State had considered the question of housing demands and the effect that the proposed modifications to the development plan might have on these. The applicants contended that unless there was a valid planning objection to the proposed development, it was wrong to wait. The proposed development would not have any effect on housing land supply before 1996, and any effect on supply thereafter was outside the life of the local plan in any event.
Held The application was dismissed. There was nothing in Thornville Properties Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment [1981] JPL 116 to suggest there was any principle that it must always be wrong to wait for a local plan’s completion before permission is granted. A refusal of permission on the grounds that a grant might prejudice the plan is valid, although the fact that a local plan is in the offing is not in itself an automatic reason for refusing planning permission: Circular 22/1984. Where, as in the instant case, a large area of land is involved, it would be wrong to conclude that an opportunity may not or should not be given in defined circumstances to complete the formalities of local policies.
The Secretary of State had given full reasons in his decision letter for his conclusion, referring to the proposed modification of the structure plan and concluding that the implications of a business park would have to be investigated locally. The reasons for dismissing the appeal were not unclear or illogical and the decision showed no error of law.
Arlington Securities Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment
[1985] JPL 550 and
R v Bickenhill Parish Council, ex parte Secretary of State for the Environment
[1987] JPL 773 considered and distinguished.
Robert Carnwath QC (instructed by Gouldens) appeared for the applicants; and Michael Kent (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the first respondent, the Secretary of State for the Environment. The second respondent, Crawley Borough Council, did not appear and was not represented.