The recent landmark case challenging the Secretary of State’s call in powers is to be fast tracked to the House of Lords in a bid to bring an end to the legal stalemate resulting from the High Court judgment.
Lords Slynn, Hoffman and Hutton have given the Secretary of State permission to appeal directly to the House of Lords, rather than to the Court of Appeal, against the Divisional Court ruling in R v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, ex parte Holding & Barnes plc and others (Alconbury).
In December, Tuckey LJ and Harrison J held that the call in process is incompatible with Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, which stipulates “In determination of his civil rights and obligations everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing”.
However, the court went on to hold that the Secretary of State would not be acting unlawfully to continue using the process. The court ruled that Article 6(2) of the ECHR cleared the Secretary of State of acting unlawfully, because he had been complying with domestic planning legislation.
If the Law Lords allow the High Court decision to stand, new legislation will have to be introduced as a matter of urgency to provide machinery to decide applications and appeals which, under the present system, would be decided by the Secretary of State.
PLS News 16/2/01
