Challenge over land in neighbourhood plan out of time, High Court rules

The case concerned a dispute between landowner Oyston Estates and Fylde Borough Council over the St Anne’s-on-Sea neighbourhood plan.

Lang J had earlier ruled that Oyston raised arguable grounds of challenge but that a decision was needed on whether the case could be brought outside the six week limit for challenges set out in the Localism Act 2011.

The plan was completed in March 2017 and a local referendum overwhelmingly supported it on 4 May, with an order enacting the plan following on 26 May.

Oyston issued its challenge on 5 July, within time to challenge the order but not the plan itself.

It argued that Fylde failed to act lawfully in refusing to follow the examiner's recommendations concerning the inclusion in the plan boundary of Oyston’s land.

Giving judgment in Oyston Estates Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v St Anne's-On-The-Sea Town Council [2017] EWHC 3086, the judge said the legislation though set out “meticulous and precise” timings for challenging each stage of the plan process, and said: “The promotion of certainty and avoidance of disruption, which is the rationale for the shorter time limits, and the precision with which they are enacted should not be undermined by a lax approach when interpreting and applying them”.

Those involved in neighbourhood plans were “entitled to know, once the six weeks is up, that the stage in the process that could within that six week period have been challenged, is no longer susceptible to challenge”.

He added: “The six week period having already expired, the prohibition against entertaining the challenge has come into play and I do not think it can be outflanked by dressing up the challenge as one not to the authority's decision to hold a referendum, but to the subsequent decision to make an order on the strength of the referendum result.”

Permission to appeal was granted.

Mark Smulian