Council loses High Court battle over siting of rail freight interchange

St Albans City and District Council has lost a High Court challenge over the Communities Secretary’s decision to grant planning permission for a strategic rail freight interchange.

The local authority applied to Mr Justice Holgate for permission to appeal his ruling but the judge refused. St Albans has until 13 April to decide whether it wishes to apply to the Court of Appeal.

In St Albans City and District Council v Secretary of State for Communities And Local Government & Ors [2015] EWHC 655 (Admin) St Albans challenged Eric Pickles’ decision to give permission for the SRFI on land in and around the former Radlett Aerodrome.

The Secretary of State allowed an appeal by Helioslough under s. 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 against refusal of planning permission by St Albans.

The council advanced two grounds in its challenge in the HIgh Court:

• The Secretary of State erred by setting a legal test requiring a "very good reason" to be shown for departing from a conclusion reached in a 2008 Inspector's Report and a 2008 decision letter on Helioslough's first appeal. In this way the Secretary of State improperly fettered his discretion when determining the company’s second appeal;
• The Secretary of State failed to take into account his decision dated 7 July 2014 in which he refused the application by Veolia ES (UK) Limited for planning permission for a waste management facility on a site at New Barnfield, four miles away from the Helioslough site.

However, Mr Justice Holgate dismissed both grounds.

On the first ground, he said that after reviewing various documents, he had been “left in no doubt that the Inspector and the Secretary of State did not either misdirect themselves by imposing a legal test requiring a good or very good planning reason for disagreeing with the earlier decision to be shown or improperly fetter the scope of their discretion to reach independent judgments on the merits of the application.

On the second, the judge “reached the firm conclusion" that the circumstances of the Veolia case were not sufficiently similar or related to the issues in the Helioslough case that the Secretary of State was obliged to take into account the Veolia decision when determining Helioslough's appeal.

“The two decisions are plainly distinguishable,” he concluded.

Responding to the ruling, Cllr Julian Daly, St Albans’ Portfolio Holder for Planning and Conservation, said: “The council is, of course, disappointed with the court’s decision. Our position remains that building a freight interchange at this site will be harmful to the district’s Green Belt. We are taking advice from our legal advisors before deciding whether to apply for permission to appeal the decision.”

St Albans has been ordered to pay the Secretary of State’s costs of £13,269. Further costs are currently being assessed.