Planning permission for a 46-home development, which the local authority is concerned would contribute towards the coalescence of Horley with Gatwick Airport, has been quashed by the High Court.
Mrs Justice Lang ruled that an inspector had been wrong to grant consent when the proposed development at 17 The Close, Horley, was contrary to the local development plan.
Reigate and Banstead Borough Council had refused permission, but Amtrose appealed successfully to an inspector last November.
The authority challenged that decision, arguing that the inspector failed properly to apply the statutory requirement to determine the appeal in accordance with the development plan, in circumstances in which he had found that a five-year housing supply could (or very nearly could) be demonstrated.
While the secretary of state conceded that the inspector had erred in his approach, and that the decision should be quashed, the developer fought to have it upheld, claiming that the inspector had been entitled to depart from the development plan as a matter of planning judgment.
However, today the judge sided with the local authority and quashed the decision, meaning the matter will have to be reconsidered.
She said that the inspector had failed to take into account that the up-to-date plan should be presumed to allocate and promote sustainable development, and failed to explain how he had concluded that the proposal was sustainable development when it was not in accordance with the development plan.
She said: “He substituted his own views of the sound approach to housing development for that of the Core Strategy examiner and the local planning authority. These were not merely technical errors in an otherwise sound analysis. It was not the inspector’s role to alter the housing development priorities in the development plan, from urban allocations to rural allocations, before such action was necessary to maintain a five-year supply of deliverable sites.”
Setting out the council’s reasons for refusing permission, she said that it considered that the proposed development would have a “serious and harmful” impact on the openness of the area and “contribute towards the coalescence of Horley with Gatwick Airport”.
James Findlay QC, who acted for the council, said that the decision confirms, at least as far as the High Court is concerned, that the presumption in favour of sustainable development is only to be applied within the context of paragraph 14 of the National Planning Policy Framework.
He said: “The decision should provide some welcome support for planning authorities with up-to-date plans, which should be supported even if they do not purport to fully meet housing need.
“The inspector in this case failed to pay due regard to the phasing mechanism within the local plan, and a general desire for housing should not take precedence over such mechanisms.”
