Council to fight decision by inspector to grant permission for 100-home scheme
Swindon Borough Council is to bring a High Court challenge over a planning inspector’s decision to grant an appeal by a developer seeking to build up to 100 homes on a site.
Ainscough Strategic Land brought the appeal over the site at Berkeley Farm in Wroughton after Swindon’s planning committee refused its application. The appeal was heard over four days in November 2015.
The council has taken legal advice “from a leading planning QC” and will challenge the inspector’s decision under section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
Swindon said its legal advice suggested that the inspector had erred in law in two respects:
- He failed to properly apply the legal test under section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, “which requires that planning decisions are made by having regard to a local authority’s Local Plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise”.
- He misdirected himself in law “by suggesting in his report that the level of the shortfall in the council’s required five-year housing land supply is immaterial to his decision”.
Cllr Toby Elliott, Swindon Borough Council cabinet member for Communities and Strategic Planning, said: “The planning inspector’s decision is a disastrous one and we must stand up for local people and the integrity of the Local Plan process by challenging it. I am pleased that the legal advice we have been given supports this position.
“I hope this announcement gives the residents of Wroughton, who came together and produced a neighbourhood plan for their area, confidence that the council is doing everything it can to challenge the planning inspector’s decision.”
