A three-judge panel at the Court of Appeal rejected a planning appeal brought by Smech Properties, a company connected to Dubai’s royal family, over a proposed development in the Surrey green belt.
At a hearing lasts month the judges rejected the appeal but didn’t hand down a judgement or give any reasons for their decision. Today’s ruling formally gives their reasons.
Smech owns the Longcross Estate near Chertsey, which is said to be one of the Dubai royal family’s residences. It is fighting plans, approved by Runnymede Borough Council, to develop the the nearby DERA site north of the M3, on the outskirts of London.
In March, High Court judge Patterson J ruled against Smech. In her ruling she agreed with Smech’s lawyers that a planning officer’s report did not adequately estimate the five-year housing supply that the development would bring. However, she rejected the claim, saying it was not a reason to stop the development.
But Smech’s lawyer, James Maurici QC, told a three-judge panel at the Court of Appeal in January that the lower court judge erred.
He said that, as the judge found that the officer’s report contained an important “material misdirection” over the five-year supply, this should be sufficient for a planning permission to be quashed by the court.
“Because the misdirection was so fundamental, the judge lacked any guidance as to what they would have done had they not been misdirected,” he said. Therefore she should not have “exercised her discretion” and refused to quash the permission.
The Court of Appeal, however, disagreed. They said that the judge was correct to conclude that, even if the misdirection had not taken place, the planning committee would have come to the same conclusion.
“On the facts of this case, in the light of the obligation of the council to comply with the applicable national planning policy, the pressing nature of the objectively assessed housing need in its area and the especial suitability of the site for development to make a significant contribution to meeting that need, I think that it was indeed inevitable that if the council’s planning committee had been properly advised in accordance with the Hunston decision, it would still have decided to grant planning permission for this development,” Sales LJ said in his ruling today.
The developers propose to build 200 homes, create almost 860,000 sq ft of employment land, 390,000 sq ft of data centre development and more than 64,000 sq ft of retail, restaurant, health and leisure, childcare and other uses.
R (on the application of Smech Properties Ltd) v Runnymede Borough Council and 1. Crest Nicholson Operations Limited 2. CGNU Life Assurance Limited. Court of Appeal (Tomlinson LJ, Briggs LJ, Sales LJ) 3 February 2016
James Maurici QC and Alistair Mills (instructed by Allen & Overy LLP) for the appellant.
David Forsdick QC and Heather Sargent (instructed by Runnymede Borough Council) for the 1st respondent.
Reuben Taylor QC (instructed by Charles Russell Speechlys LLP) for the second respondents.
