Cheshire East win Court Ruling

Cheshire East Council has secured a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court to better protect residents from speculative housing developments that threaten the countryside.

A decision, by five judges sitting in the highest court in the land, will significantly strengthen local and neighbourhood planning policies throughout England, leaving planners and planning inspectors to re-think the rulebook.

The ruling, announced today (Wednesday) at the end of a three-year legal process, vindicates the position taken by Cheshire East, in conjunction with Suffolk Coastal Council, that guidance in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was being applied incorrectly.

Both councils successfully argued that this undermined local decisions in the development plan as to where development should and should not be allowed.

Welcoming the decision today, council leader Rachel Bailey, said: "This is a landmark ruling, achieved by Cheshire East, which will benefit planning authorities and town planners up and down the country.

"I am proud that this council had the courage to pursue this action.

"This means that we can now better protect our local communities from speculative, unsustainable development by ensuring a proper approach to the application of planning policies."

"Out of date"

In an attempt to boost house building, the NPPF says that in some circumstances relevant policies for the supply of housing should be treated as 'out of date.'

Developers had argued that 'policies for the supply of housing' was an expression which embraced a wide range of policies designed to protect the environment.

But that argument – based on the wording in the NPPF – has now been overturned, allowing planning authorities to better resist unsustainable and speculative housing schemes.

Cheshire East Council says the judgement strengthens the hand of all local authorities seeking to protect green gap, green belt and other special sites such as Jodrell Bank.

Willaston Plan

The Supreme Court hearing arose from an application by Richborough Estates to build 170 homes on green gap land between Nantwich and Crewe at Willaston.

Although the judges upheld the developer's appeal, the two councils succeeded in securing the ruling about the proper interpretation of policy, which sets a new precedent for future planning decisions.

The judges were critical of the Court of Appeal for treating local and neighbourhood plans policies as out of date when they upheld the Richborough case.

The Supreme Court judgement said: "No one would naturally describe a recently approved green belt policy in a local plan as 'out of date', merely because the housing policies in another part of the plan fail to meet the NPPF objectives."

It is unclear quite what influence this decision will have in the various planning appeals around Audlem, but it sounds like a step in the right direction,

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