St Albans City and District Council v Secretary of State for Communities And Local Government & Ors

A decision-maker considering a later planning application must exercise an independent judgment, while giving proper weight to an earlier decision in an indistinguishable or sufficiently related case. Consistency does not impose a legal requirement for a “good” or “very good” planning reason before departing from an earlier conclusion. The decision-maker must instead explain the reasoning for any departure.

A previous planning decision is a material consideration where the cases are sufficiently closely related, assessed by reference to their similarities and differences. Site-specific balancing exercises involving different developments, needs and benefits will often be distinguishable. A consideration is not legally mandatory merely because it might have affected the outcome.

The Council sought to quash the Secretary of State’s decision granting planning permission for a strategic rail freight interchange at the former Radlett Aerodrome. The challenge arose from the redetermination of Helioslough’s second planning appeal after the earlier decision had been quashed in separate proceedings.

Two grounds were advanced. First, the Council alleged that the Inspector and Secretary of State had unlawfully required a “very good planning reason” before departing from conclusions reached on the first application. Secondly, it alleged that the Secretary of State had failed to take into account a later decision refusing permission for a waste management facility at New Barnfield, Hertfordshire. The Council also relied on procedural unfairness and legitimate expectation.

1. Ground 1 dismissed. The references to a “very good planning reason” in the Inspector’s report and the Secretary of State’s decision letter did not impose a legal test or fetter the decision-maker’s discretion. Properly understood, they described the weight attributable to conclusions reached after a lengthy inquiry and detailed assessment. The consistency principle required the decision-maker to recognise the importance of the earlier decision and give reasons for departing from it, but permitted an independent assessment of the later application.
2. The reasoning in R (King’s Cross Railway Land Group) v Camden LBC [2007] EWHC 1515 (Admin) was concerned with practical realities and the weight to be given to an earlier decision, not with a legal threshold. Dunster Properties Limited v First Secretary of State [2007] 2 P & CR 26 confirmed that a later decision-maker must address the intellectual substance of any disagreement and provide reasons.
3. Ground 2 dismissed. Under section 70(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the court determines whether a consideration is legally relevant, while the decision-maker determines its weight subject to irrationality. Whether an earlier planning decision is a mandatory material consideration depends on context. The relevant inquiry may be whether it is obviously material, whether it is sufficiently closely related to the issues, or whether it was fundamental or had a real possibility of affecting the outcome.
4. The New Barnfield decision concerned a different development, site, need, scale, policy context and site-specific balance. Its findings could not be separated from the benefits and requirements of that proposal. The two decisions were therefore distinguishable, and the Secretary of State was not legally obliged to take the New Barnfield decision into account.
5. The complaints of procedural unfairness and legitimate expectation consequently fell away. The court declined to decide the wider effect of the subsequent quashing of the New Barnfield decision, observing that parts of a quashed planning decision may in some circumstances remain capable of consideration.
6. The claim was dismissed. The Council was ordered to pay the First Defendant’s costs of £13,269 and the Second Defendant’s costs of preparing a specified witness statement. Permission to appeal was refused, but time for filing a notice of appeal was extended to 13 April 2015.