Council loses High Court challenge to finding on failure to cooperate
St Albans City and District Council has failed in a High Court challenge to a planning inspector’s conclusion that it had not met its duty to cooperate with neighbouring planning authorities while drawing up its Strategic Local Plan (SLP).
In 2016 St Albans submitted its draft SLP for approval to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The DCLG appointed a planning inspector, David Hogger, to examine it. Following an initial hearing on 26 October last year, Mr Hogger concluded that St Albans had not met its duty to co-operate while drawing up its SLP.
The council started legal proceedings against the Secretary of State in January this year to challenge the inspector’s conclusion.
Permission to apply for a judicial review was granted on 22 June after a hearing, and the judge, Sir Ross Cranston, handed down his judgment this week.
In St Albans City And District Council, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2017] EWHC 1751 Sir Ross said: “I accept the Secretary of State’s submission that once there is disagreement, I would add even fundamental disagreement, that is not an end of the duty to cooperate, especially in an area such as housing markets and housing need which involve as much art as science, and in which no two experts seem to agree.
“As Paterson J underlined in R (on the application of Central Bedfordshire Council) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2015] EWHC 2167 (Admin), the duty to cooperate is active and on-going, and that to my mind means active and on-going even when discussions seem to have hit the buffers. In all the circumstances, my conclusion is that the Inspector did not reach an illogical or irrational conclusion as regards the duty to cooperate over housing.”
Cllr Mary Maynard, St Albans’ Portfolio Holder for Planning, said: “We were pleased that the judge found sufficient merit in our case to give us permission to apply for judicial review. Nevertheless, [this] judgment is disappointing.
“We remain committed to delivering a Strategic Local Plan that will shape our housing, commercial, retail and industrial environment in the District until 2031. We will take stock and re-assess our approach, and we look forward to working with all our stakeholders, particularly our neighbouring councils.”
Cllr David Yates, Planning Policy Committee LibDem Group Spokesperson, said: “The outcome is certainly disappointing. The Inspector may have been legally entitled to conclude that St Albans had not shown him that it had cooperated sufficiently with neighbouring local authorities, but that doesn’t get us any closer to having a Local Plan in place. It’s frustrating that whilst everyone acknowledges that a ‘Duty to Cooperate’ is not a duty to agree, reaching a disagreement is taken as indicating a failure to cooperate.”
Mark Westmoreland Smith of Francis Taylor Building appeared for the Secretary of State. Matthew Reed QC of Landmark Chambers appeared for St Albans.
