A High Court judge has rejected an assertion that a warning by a council of continuing proceedings and the associated costs had “coerced” the defendants in a planning enforcement dispute into providing undertakings.

The Supreme Court will next week hand down its much anticipated ruling in a dispute about whether Tower Hamlets Council was entitled to make a rule that only councillors who had been present when a planning application had previously been considered could vote on deferred applications.

Cheltenham Borough Council has taken the usual step of appealing a case in which it was successful because of concern that the Planning Court’s ruling would have meant the potential impact of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) on medical implants would always be a material planning consideration.

A new streamlined process for environmental regulations will be implemented for major projects and habitats regulations concerning bats are to be reviewed, the Government has said.

A property owner has lost a High Court case in which it argued that planning consent for a residential project should have been given by Broxtowe Borough Council since this was the only feasible route to financing clearance of Japanese knotweed, which infests the site.

Campaigners against a proposed tower block have instructed Public Interest Law Centre to act for them against Manchester City Council.

Herefordshire Council acted lawfully when it used planning policy to try to control agricultural waste, the High Court has found.

East Herts District Council is facing a judicial review action over planning consents for part of the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town project.

A local amenity group has lost a High Court challenge to Oxford City Council’s decision to give itself planning consent for a new bridge.

A national scheme of delegation setting out which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to committee, controls over the size of planning committees that will see “unwieldy” committees banned, and mandatory training for planning committee members are among the reforms set out in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduced in Parliament today (11 March).

A number of organisations including Sport England, the Theatres Trust and the Gardens Trust will no longer be required to input on planning decisions, while the scope of other statutory consultees will be narrowed to focus on heritage, safety and environmental protection, under plans put forward by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Police could be called into Harborough District Council after a draft local plan was leaked days before it was set to be discussed in public, the council's leader is reported to have said.