Duty to have regard to previous decisions
Challenges to planning decisions are frequently based on the ground that the decision maker has failed to have any, or any sufficient, regard to previous decisions made on the same subject matter. The gist of the complaint is not that the authority was in any sense bound by the earlier decision but rather that it failed, in violation of the so-called consistency principle, to give it sufficient weight as a material consideration.
The decision of George Bartlett QC in R (on the application of Rank) v East Cambridgeshire District Council [2002] 42 EG 159 (CS) demonstrates that the principle can be brought into play notwithstanding considerable differences between the earlier development and the one in issue. It is enough that a proper consideration of the earlier decision could have resulted in a different outcome.
Duty to have regard to previous decisions
Challenges to planning decisions are frequently based on the ground that the decision maker has failed to have any, or any sufficient, regard to previous decisions made on the same subject matter. The gist of the complaint is not that the authority was in any sense bound by the earlier decision but rather that it failed, in violation of the so-called consistency principle, to give it sufficient weight as a material consideration.
The decision of George Bartlett QC in R (on the application of Rank) v East Cambridgeshire District Council [2002] 42 EG 159 (CS) demonstrates that the principle can be brought into play notwithstanding considerable differences between the earlier development and the one in issue. It is enough that a proper consideration of the earlier decision could have resulted in a different outcome.
