Dispute over adequacy of reasons in planning case heads to Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has given Dover District Council and developer China Gateway International permission to appeal a Court of Appeal ruling that quashed permission for a 521-dwelling development in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).

In Campaign To Protect Rural England, Kent (CPRE), R (On the Application Of) v Dover District Council [2016] EWCA Civ 936 the Court of Appeal reversed the judgment of Mitting J, and quashed the council’s grant of outline permission for the scheme in the Kent Downs AONB.

Laws LJ said during the appeal hearing: “It is said, and I believe it to be uncontentious, that the scale of the proposed development is unprecedented in an AONB.”

He ruled that Dover’s planning committee had not given adequate reasons for its view on how much harm the scheme would cause, or on whether it could be viably modified to mitigate that harm. 

Environmental pressure group the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) had challenged Dover’s grant of planning permission.

Writing on Local Government Lawyer last September Caroline Daly, a barrister at Francis Taylor Building, said Dover officers had recommended refusal of the scheme, making “trenchant criticisms” of its density, layout and design.

Planning committee members though approved the scheme on the basis that a lower density alternative might not be viable and in the belief that effective screening could minimise harm to the AONB.

Mark Smulian