Development on the green belt and incorrect advice
In Smech Properties v Runnymede Borough Council [2016], the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against the council’s decision to allow development in the green belt, even though the local authority had followed incorrect advice.
Runnymede Borough Council granted planning permission for a mixed-use development on a site in a green belt, on the basis of an officer’s report. Smech Properties, which owned land close to the site, sought a judicial review on the ground that the council had followed incorrect advice in the officer’s report regarding the impact of planning permission on its ability to meet requirements for additional housing provision in its area. The High Court dismissed the claim to quash the permission, holding that had the correct advice been given, the council would inevitably still have decided to grant permission.
Smech appealed and the case proceeded by way of a review of the High Court’s judgment. The Court of Appeal said the High Court judge, who was a member of the Planning Court, had enough expertise and could be expected to have a particularly good understanding of the planning context in the case. It also said the judge had been entitled to make the assessment he had; and that it had been inevitable that, if the planning committee had been properly advised about the position in relation to housing need in the Runnymede area, it would have made the same decision. In any event, it ruled that the judge’s assessment had been correct. The outcome suggests that, in the absence of clear legal flaws, the courts are reluctant to interfere with the judgment of another planning court.
