High Court to hear judicial review of council decision to reject local plan that passed examination

A date has been set for a judicial review of Wrexham Borough Council's decision not to adopt its local plan – which it took despite its monitoring officer relaying "unequivocal" legal advice that said the council's decision was unlawful.

Wrexham voted against adopting its local plan at an extraordinary council meeting on 19 April 2023.

Two months prior, the planning inspector had found the plan sound and recommended the council adopt it, following an examination process that had begun in 2018.

Council officers also recommended the adoption of the plan, but the council chose to abandon the document due to a range of concerns over infrastructure, housebuilding and the placement of a proposed Gypsy site.

The council later received a letter before claim, arguing the move was unlawful because the council failed to adopt the local plan by a date falling within eight weeks after the receipt of the inspector's recommendations.

It also argued that the decision to reject the recommendation to adopt the plan was unlawful.

A second extraordinary council meeting was called in June to discuss the legal challenge and the council's position, where Wrexham's monitoring officer, Linda Roberts, urged councillors to adopt the local plan to avoid an unwinnable judicial review challenge. 

In her report, Roberts wrote that advice sought from counsel was "unequivocally clear: the judicial review claim has overwhelming merit and the Council has undoubtedly acted unlawfully."

She noted that the advice was taken from an experienced planning and administrative law barrister and concluded that there are "no grounds whatsoever" for defending the judicial review claim.

"On this basis and in order to minimise costs as far as possible, the Council has no plausible option but to concede that an unlawful decision had been made on 19 April," she wrote.

Her report recommended the council adopt the local plan in order to comply with the legal duty under the Town and Country Planning (Local Development Plan) (Wales) Regulations 2005 to adopt the LDP and to avoid the costs of proceedings, which she estimated to be between £50,000 and £100,000.

Roberts noted that the council's other key governance officers and the chief officer of planning and economy all agreed with the advice.

But despite her report, the council resolved not to support the recommendations, with 24 councillors voting for adoption and 30 against.

The High Court is now set to hear the challenge on 29 November.

Adam Carey