The High Court in London ordered Sedgemoor District Council to reconsider plans for a 140-home development near Bridgwater in Somerset.
Builders Gladman Developments submitted plans in 2017 to build on land off Newton Road, North Petherton. They were turned down by planning authority Sedgemoor District Council over concerns about archaeology, roads, flooding and settlement boundaries.
Gladman appealed, but in July a planning inspector ruled against it. By that time the concerns about archaeology, roads and flooding had fallen away.
However, the planning inspector found that, as the development was outside the settlement’s boundaries, and therefore in the countryside, it breached the council’s development plan.
However, at a hearing in December, lawyers for developers argued that the planning inspector had erred.
Specifically, they argued that the inspector misapplied national planning policy because he didn’t make a final finding about the council’s five-year housing land supply situation.
In his report, the inspector said that, while it would be “clearly desirable” for him to reach a firm conclusion “if reasonably possible”, “in this case it is not a realistic option”.
This, planning judge Mr Justice Dove ruled yesterday, was a mistake.
“It is clear that the inspector fell into legal error in this case by failing to reach a conclusion in relation to the five-year housing land supply position,” the judge wrote
“It is clear that he reached no conclusion at all as to the five-year housing land supply position, and whether there was a shortfall, let alone examining the nature and extent of any such shortfall if one existed…
“This was not one of the exceptional cases where such a conclusion either could not be reached or was not required in order to provide a comprehensive answer to the question of whether or not development should be consented.”
He ruled that the decision refusing planning permission should be quashed and for planning permission to be reconsidered.
Gladman Developments Ltd v SofS for Housing Communities and Local Government; Sedgemoor District Council
Administrative Court (Dove J) 29 January 2019
