High Court rejects challenge to adoption of West Suffolk local plan

In Lochailort Kentford Limited v West Suffolk Council & Anor [2026] EWHC 1870 (Admin), Mr Justice Coppel granted permission for the application to be heard but rejected the claim on all three grounds.

West Suffolk's Local Plan was set to be adopted in July last year, but the legal challenge against the council and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government delayed adoption.

The litigation centred around the decision not to allocate land owned by the claimant for residential use in the Local Plan.

The claimant argued that a council decision to include part of the site in its Brownfield Land Register indicated that West Suffolk in fact considered the promoted site to be suitable for residential development.

The claim contended that this position was inconsistent with what the council said about the site during the preparation of the Local Plan and should have been notified to the inspectors, as it may have influenced their opinion of the council’s treatment of the site.

The claimant advanced three grounds of argument at the High Court and sought an order quashing the Local Plan as a whole or certain parts of it.  

Coppel J granted permission for the appeal to be heard, but dismissed all three grounds following a rolled-up hearing in June this year.

West Suffolk's leader, Clif Waterman, described the decision as a "win" for the county, adding: "It means that the current Local Plan and with it the council’s five-year-land supply, continues to remain in place. That in turn gives the council and the communities that we represent the power to say no to speculative development. It gives us the ability to protect the countryside and provide certainty to our residents of where and how development will come forward, so we are delighted with today’s High Court ruling.”

Cllr Frank Stennett, West Suffolk's Cabinet Member for Planning, meanwhile said the decision vindicates the work of councillors and officers of the council "in the careful and methodical work carried out in preparation of our plan and in their subsequent robust defence against this challenge".

He added: "It shows that we have followed all of the correct procedures as set out by Government for the various stages of public engagement and plan preparation. It supports the decisions that we made and the responses that we gave at the independent examination in public. Today’s High Court ruling backs the Secretary of State’s view that the West Suffolk Local Plan is legally sound."

Adam Carey