Outline planning permission granted for holiday lodges – Applicant applying for planning permission for 40 dwellings – Inspector refusing application – Applicant appealing – Whether inspector failed to take into account extant planning permission as material consideration – Application to quash inspector’s decision refused
In 1993 outline planning permission was granted for development of land at the Boathouse, Wootton, by the second respondents, Isle of Wight Council. The permission was perfected by the approval of reserved matters in February 1996 and remained extant. An earlier similar planning permission for 60 holiday lodges and leisure club had been granted in 1990, subject to an agreement under section 52 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971, which restricted the occupation of the units and precluded their use as permanent residences. In October 1996 the applicant applied for outline planning permission for residential development of 40 dwellings on the site The second respondents failed to determine the application within the statutory time-limit and an appeal was made in December 1996. After a public inquiry in March 1997 the inspector dismissed the appeal. The applicant applied under section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 for the decision to be quashed.
The applicant claimed that the 1993 and the 1996 planning permissions allowed the erection of 60 holiday lodges and that their permitted use fell within class C3 of the Use Classes Order 1987, thus allowing for their use as permanent residences. Therefore it was argued that the extant permission allowed for the development of 60 houses for use within class C3. It was claimed that that represented a “fall-back” position against which the appeal proposal for 40 dwellings should be tested. The applicant contended that the inspector had failed to have regard to material considerations arising from the “fall-back” position, that he had failed to deal properly, or at all, with the effect of the extant planning permission, which was an essential and substantive issue and that he had failed to reach or express any conclusion upon it. The Secretary of State for the Environment contended that the extant planning permission, if implemented, would be limited to the use of holiday lodges and outside class C3.
Held The application was dismissed.
Although the inspector’s reasoning had not been as clear as it might have been, his overall process of reasoning was that he was faced with the 1993 and the 1996 permissions, which had policy justification, and he had a proposal before him for permanent residential housing, which was directly contrary to the development plan. He had noted the legal issues, but had decided that it was not necessary for him to decide them as he had accepted that the 1993 permission, if it was implemented, would allow for holiday lodges to be sold as dwellings. What he had done was to balance a scheme against which there were serious policy objections, against a scheme for which there were policy justifications, and it could not be said that that was an unreasonable stance to take.
Anthony Porter QC (instructed by Dutton Gregory, of Winchester) appeared for the appellant; Christopher Katkowski (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the first respondent, the Secretary of State for the Environment; Mark Lowe (instructed by Glanvilles Damant, of Newport) appeared for the second respondents, Isle of Wight Council.
