Test Valley Council have succeeded in a High Court challenge to Hampshire County Council’s plan for the creation of two new forests in their area.
Test Valley initially challenged the county council’s inclusion of the forest scheme in a replacement structure plan for the area, and as a result the matter was put under public scrutiny under the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
The panel considering the matter recommended that the scheme for the forests should be deleted, but the county council retained the scheme in an amended form.
Now Test Valley have successfully challenged that decision. The High Court held that the county council failed to give adequate reasons for their decision not to adhere to the panels recommendations.
The judge took the view that, among other things, the county council had not properly addressed the issues of countryside management as opposed to land use, and he therefore quashed the relevant part of the structure plan.
Test Valley Borough Council v Hampshire County Council and others Queens Bench (Mr Jack Beatson QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the division) 29 November 2000.
ALIGN=”JUSTIFY”>Adrian Trevelyan-Thomas (instructed by Sharpe Pritchard, as agent to Test Valley Borough Council) appeared for the applicants; Nigel Macleod QC and David Abrahams (instructed by the solicitor to Hampshire County Council) appeared for the respondents.
PLS News 1/12/00
