Decision of planning inspector quashed after failure to consider earlier ruling

A planning inspector failed to take proper account of another inspector’s earlier conclusions on a similar issue, the High Court has decided in quashing the second inspector’s ruling.

The case arose in an application by Gladman Developments to Central Bedfordshire Council to build 135 homes at Henlow.

This was refused in October 2016, a decision upheld two years later on appeal by an inspector.

Central Bedfordshire said the application breached a number of development plan policies in particular one on development within and beyond settlement envelopes.

Gladman said this policy should be afforded less weight, or be treated as irrelevant, because it was out of date. The inspector disagreed.

The developer argued that the inspector erred because he failed to properly consider why an inspector in the earlier case at nearby Meppershall had concluded the policy was out of date and of limited weight.

Dove J noted: “The inspector in the decision under challenge provides no rationale for his departure from, in particular, the earlier decision from the Meppershall inspector (which itself dealt relatively comprehensively with the earlier appeal decisions on the point), and he needed to provide specific reasons for reaching a different conclusion.

“Merely contradicting, or saying he had reached a different conclusion from earlier decision on the point was insufficient.”

Giving judgment in Gladman Developments Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing Communities And Local Government & Anor [2019] EWHC 127 Dove J said: “I am satisfied that the inspector erred in law…in my view that error must lead to the decision reached by the inspector being quashed and this matter being re-determined”.

Mark Smulian