Finally, the judgment in The Manydown Co Ltd v Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council [2012] EWHC 977 (Admin); [2012] PLSCS 86 contains a very useful summary of some additional major principles of public law, which is worth digesting here. Authority for them is to be found in decisions of the court from 1926 to 2012.
1. When a public body is entrusted with an apparently unfettered discretion, it must exercise its power reasonably and in accordance with the relevant statutory purpose.
2. Powers conferred on a local authority by statute can validly be used only in the way that Parliament is presumed to have intended.
3. An authority may not exclude or limit the future exercise of its powers.
4. If it asks itself the wrong question or misinterprets its powers or makes a mistake of fact, an authority may unlawfully fetter its discretion.
5. An authority generally has a duty to consider whether it should exercise its powers.
6. An authority may not enter into any contract, or take any action, incompatible with the due exercise of its statutory powers.
7. An authority owes a fiduciary duty to its taxpayers, which includes the duty to use the full resources available to it to the best advantage.
8. An authority’s powers as the owner of land are not to be equated with those of a private landowner. It must act to further the statutory object for which it acquired and holds the land
9. An authority must not take into account irrelevant material or fail to take into account that which is relevant. It must not act irrationally or perversely.
10. An authority’s decision will be unlawful if it is based on a material mistake of fact.
11. In applying relevant policy, the decision-maker must understand the policy correctly. If he departs from policy, he must acknowledge that fact and set out cogent reasons for doing so.
13. Policy statements are to be interpreted objectively in accordance with the language used.
In Manydown, the court concluded that the local planning authority – in deciding to exclude the land in question from its core strategy – had breached a number of those principles. That conclusion led directly to the claim being allowed.
John Martin
