Wiltshire council faced decisions in three cases in two separate judgments at the Planning Court – and emerged victorious in two of them.
Patterson J quashed a planning inspector’s grant of planning permission for 15 new homes in the village of Hilperton, and upheld the council’s decision to allow removal of conditions limiting eight lodges in Oaksey to use solely as holiday accommodation.
The council was only denied a clean sweep when the judge dismissed its challenge to an inspector’s decision to allow a residential annex in Hilperton to be used as independent residential accommodation.
In a separate judgment, Patterson J dismissed a challenge to the holiday lodge decision brought by campaigners the Oaksey Conservation Group. She upheld the council’s decision to remove planning conditions attached to eight buildings at Oaksey Park which restricted them to holiday lets and prevented occupation between 6 January and 5 February. The council allowed them to be used for wholly unrestricted residential occupancy, after the owners of Oaksey Park claimed there was no interest in holiday lets.
The judge upheld the council’s claim that, in granting planning permission to Heron Land Developments and Gallagher for the 15-dwelling development, an inspector had failed to consider a different inspector’s report into the emerging Wiltshire Core Strategy (EWCS) which established a housing requirement of 42,000 homes in the period up to 2026, lower than the 44,000 figure applied in the decision.
Quashing the permission, she said: “I am satisfied that the claimant has suffered prejudice in that planning permission has been granted for a development contrary to development plan policy on a basis which was or may have been in error, namely housing need.”
The developers had argued that she should exercise her discretion not to quash the decision, but she said that she could not be satisfied that the decision would have been the same if the error had not been made. The Core Strategy was formally adopted by the council on 20 January, less than a month after the permission was granted.
The EWCS point was also raised by the council in its challenge over the separate permission relating to the annex at The Chase, Church Street, Hilperton, as independent accommodation. However, the judge rejected the council’s claim in that case.
In her ruling in the holiday lodge dispute, she said that the council planning officer’s report was not ideal, but found that it could not be said that council members were significantly misled.
Wiltshire Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and ors; Wiltshire Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Planning Court (Patterson J) 5 May 2015
Hugh Richards (instructed by Wiltshire County Council) for the claimant
Graham Walters (instructed by Government Legal Department) for the first defendant
Richard Kimblin (instructed by Osborne Clark) for the second to fourth defendants in the first case
The Queen on the application of Flemming and ors v Wiltshire Council Planning Court (Patterson J) 5 May 2015
Nina Pindham (instructed by Thrings Solicitors) for the claimant
Matthew Reed (instructed by Wiltshire County Council) for the defendant
