Ministry of Defence submitting notice of proposed development for land partly inside and partly outside national park – Inspector holding public inquiry – Application for declaration as to appropriate local planning authority – High Court declaring county council appropriate planning authority for land outside park
In April 1995 the Ministry of Defence submitted an “options for change” notice of proposed development, which proposed substantial development at Otterburn Training Area in the county of Northumberland. The training area was Crown land managed by the Ministry of Defence. It extended to some 56,000 acres. Almost the entire site of the proposed development lay within Northumberland National Park; the small part of the site outside the national park lay within Tynedale District. The National Park Committee considered the notice between March 1995 and March 1996. Meanwhile, Northumberland County Council decided that they (rather than the National Park Committee) were the local planning authority with responsibility for determining the notice on the basis that as the site was part inside and part outside the national park, the application was a “county matter” under the provisions of para 1(1)(i) of Schedule 1 to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. In May 1996 Northumberland County Council resolved to object to the notice. The Ministry of Defence referred the matter to the Secretary of State for Defence, who established a non-statutory public inquiry into the proposals.
On October 1 1996 the Secretary of State established the Northumberland National Park Authority (the NNPA), which thereafter was the sole local planning authority for the area of the park. During the course of the inquiry the inspector requested written submissions from the main parties on the question of which authority was the local planning authority for the notice. The Ministry of Defence submitted that by virtue of sections 1(5)(a) and 4A(2) and paras 3(7) and 4(2) of Schedule 1 to the 1990 Act, the local planning authority for the part of the site which lay within the national park was the NNPA, and for the part which lay outside, the local planning authority was Tynedale District Council. Northumberland County Council and the NNPA jointly submitted that by virtue of paras 1(1)(i) and 3(2) of Schedule 1 to the 1990 Act, the local planning authority for the entire site were Northumberland County Council.
By the close of the inquiry the Ministry of Defence had submitted an extensive number of conditions and voluntary undertakings, many of which were in a form which had been agreed by Northumberland County Council and the NNPA. A considerable number of the suggested conditions and undertakings required the submission of details to the “local planning authority” and the approval of that authority before development could proceed. The Secretary of State, the applicant, sought a declaration to indentify the relevant local planning authority.
Held Northumberland County Council was the relevant planning authority.
Schedule 1 to the 1990 Act could be read consistently with section 4A(2) of the Act without leaving any legislative gap in relation to the appropriate planning authority for land outside the national park. The National Park Authority was the planning authority for land within the national park by virtue of section 4A(2) of the Act. The duties and powers in relation to land outside the National Park were conferred by section 1 and the National Park Authority had no powers or duties in relation to that land. By virtue of para 3(2) of Schedule 1 to the Act, where land outside the park was subject to a planning application which straddled a park, it was a county matter and was to be dealt with by the relevant county planning authority. Accordingly, it could be concluded that Northumberland County Council were the relevant local planning authority.
Nigel Macleod QC and Christopher Katkowski (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the applicant; Andrew Kelly appeared for the Attorney-General as amicus curiae.
