Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

I have received a reply from County Hall.

The answer is shorter than the question!

 

Question

Re Wiltshire Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
[2015] EWHC 1459 (Admin) - judgment handed down on 20 May 2015.

This seems to be a truly appalling decision by a High Court judge, and surely
needs to be appealed to the Court of Appeal on grounds of procedural error and
error of law.

The old saying is that it is a woman's privilege to change her mind, but that cannot
extend to a decision handed down by a High Court judge which has already finally
determined an issue, viz. [74] of [2015] EWHC 1261 (Admin):-
"In the circumstances and, with a degree of reluctance, I find that I am unable to
exercise my discretion not to quash the decision letter."

Furthermore, it is plainly inconsistent and wrong not to quash the decision letter in
Appeal B on the basis that the decision would have been the same in spite of the
Secretary of State's error of law, but to refuse to quash the decision letter in
Appeal A because the decision would almost certainly have been different and
hence would deprive the Developer Defendants of the benefits of that unlawful
decision letter.

The consequences of such flawed reasoning must be that a Local Planning
Authority can never overturn an Appeal Decision, however serious the
unlawfulness of it may be.

The judge also seems totally to have ignored the fact that Wiltshire Council is the
Local Planning Authority with a duty to the public at large to ensure that the
integrity of the planning system in its area is maintained and in that respect it
cannot be treated as on a par with developers. There is no proper evaluation in
the judgment of the harm to the public interest that will be caused by not quashing
the decision letter.

I am advised that the proper approach to the exercise of the discretion, which is
supposed to be exceptional, not to quash a decision that has been found to be
unlawful is that of Mr Justice Gilbart on 19 February 2015 in Davies v
Carmarthenshire County Council [2015] EWHC 230 (Admin), following Bateman v
South Cambridgeshire District Council [2011] EWCA Civ 157, particularly Moore-
Bick LJ at [31].

 

 

Answer.

 

Officers can confirm that the Council is seeking permission from the Courts to appeal the Judge’s decision not to quash the decision letter issued by the Secretary of State in relation to the planning appeal at Devizes Road, Hilperton.