The Court of Appeal today clarified its position on planning inspectors’ duty in relation to harm caused to the setting of listed buildings.
In a High Court ruling in March, deputy judge John Howell QC reversed a decision approving a wind turbine. He said he did this “with reluctance” because he felt himself bound by a 2014 Court of Appeal ruling, East Northamptonshire District Council v SS For Communities and Local Government written by Sullivan LJ.
He interpreted the ruling to mean that the planning inspector needed to both “give considerable weight” to harm caused to the setting of listed buildings and “demonstrate” that such weight had been given.
Howell DJ rejected the planning inspector’s decision because, although he was satisfied that considerable weight had been given, it had not been adequately demonstrated.
However, in a ruling today Lord Justice Sales reversed the ruling and said the wind turbine should be given planning permission.
“With respect to the deputy judge, I think he read too much into paragraph 29 of the judgment of Sullivan LJ in the East Northamptonshire case,” he said.
“Sullivan LJ’s comments in paragraph 29 were made in the context of a decision letter which positively gave the impression that the inspector had not given the requisite considerable weight to the desirability of preserving the setting of the relevant listed building.”
In this case, the relevant judgment to refer to is Save Britain’s Heritage and South Bucks DC, the “usual” ruling in such cases, Sales said.
As a postscript, Sullivan LJ was the judge who granted the local authority permission to appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeal.
Mordue v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Court of Appeal (Richards LJ Floyd LJ, Sales LJ) 3 December 2015