Judge quashes planning permission for 85-home scheme after appeal by council

A district council has won a High Court appeal after an inspector granted a developer planning permission for 85 dwellings and associated works, in a key ruling on the operation of the National Planning Policy Framework.

In August last year Gladman Developments won permission on appeal for the scheme on land north of Ross Road in Newent.

Forest of Dean District Council, which had in February 2015 refused permission, appealed under section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

In its challenge to the inspector’s decision the local authority advanced four grounds of appeal. They were that the inspector:

1. Failed to consider and give reasons as to whether the site was a 'valued landscape';

2. Incorrectly applied the NPPF at paragraph 134 and the test on harm to heritage assets;
3. Failed to consider the interaction between paragraph 134 and paragraph 14 [the presumption in favour of sustainable development] of the NPPF and therefore applying the wrong test;

4. Gave inadequate reasoning.


The Communities Secretary accepted that Ground 3 had been made out and joined Forest of Dean in asking the judge, Mr Justice Coulson, to quash the decision.

Gladman Developments did not accept Ground 3.

In Forest of Dean District Council v Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government & Anor [2016] EWHC 421 (Admin), Mr Justice Coulson ruled that Forest of Dean’s application on Ground 3 had been successful.

The judge also concluded that it could not be said that, if the inspector had applied the right test, he would necessarily have reached the same answer.

Mr Justice Coulson therefore allowed the application to quash.