It has been long recognised that the financial dependency of one part of a development on another part may be a material consideration for planning determination purposes. Perhaps the most frequently cited example is R v Westminster City Council ex parte Monahan [1990] 1 QB 87. There, the proposed development comprised the reconstruction and extension of the Royal Opera House (to bring it up to international standards) together with the erection of office accommodation on part of the site.
Despite the fact that the office development involved a departure from the development plan, planning permission for the whole was granted. The court acknowledged that the fact that the finances made available from the commercial development would enable the improvements to be carried out was a consideration that related to the use or development of the land.
In R (on the application of Hampton Bishop Parish Council) v Herefordshire Council (see PP 2013/197) the claimant also contended that the local planning authority (“LPA”) had erred in regarding the provision of 190 units of enabling residential development also on the application site as a material consideration. In particular, it argued that there was no express policy, national or local, for considering the provision of enabling development to allow a rugby club to relocate. Cases concerning enabling development related to the improvement or renovation of important heritage sites or other national assets as such as the Royal Opera House and – in Derwent Holdings Ltd v Trafford Borough Council [2011] EWCA Civ 832 – Old Trafford Cricket Ground.
The court rejected this ground of challenge also. The LPA’s planning officers had accepted (1) the need for the rugby club to relocate, to ensure a sustainable future for the club (2) in terms of the scope of the facilities involved, a need for all of the facilities sought in the application and (3) the need for 190 residential units to fund those facilities.
The fact that the LPA was concerned here with a regional or local benefit, rather than an opera house or an international cricket ground, was not to the point. In this case, the asset – the new rugby facilities – could properly be described as regional; but the principles were the same. That said, the wider the geographical value of the proposed enabled asset, the greater the weight a LPA might be prepared to give to it.
John Martin
