Aggregate Industries’ permission to quarry Straitgate Farm is subject to a plethora of conditions, a number of which will need to be discharged before any soils can be stripped.
How should councils grapple with the discharge of planning conditions?
A judgement, handed down last month by the High Court (Barbara Laing, R (on the application of) v The Cornwall Council [2024] EWHC 120 (Admin)), in relation to the replacement of a length of Cornish hedgerow, gives an insight into the interpretation and discharge of planning conditions.
Judge Jarman KC summarised the legal principles involved, writing:
There are no special rules for the interpretation of planning conditions. The test is what a reasonable reader would understand the words to mean in the context of the other conditions and of the consent as a whole. This is an objective exercise in which the court will have regard to the natural and ordinary meaning of the relevant words, the overall purpose of the consent, any other conditions which cast light on the purpose of the relevant words, and common sense: DB Symmetry Ltd v Swindon Borough Council [2022] UKSC 33 at [66].
In the particular case he was presiding over, linked to a permission for a nine-home development, the judge quashed Cornwall Council’s decision to discharge a planning condition linked to an ecological plan. That plan had stipulated that double the length of hedgerow to be lost must be constructed elsewhere on-site. The developer applied to discharge the condition, submitting that 23m of lost hedgerow would be replaced by 25m of new. A principal planning officer for the Council considered this acceptable, reporting:
The condition can therefore be discharged as the [ecological plan] is deemed to be acceptable and in accordance with the general requirements set out in the originally submitted [ecological appraisal].
The claimant, who lives next door to the site, challenged the Council’s decision. The Judge ruled:
The authority interpreted condition 6 too narrowly, and consequently did not grapple with the noncompliance of the ecological plan in two important respects, namely the length of new hedge and direct connectivity with retained hedge... The decision on the application must be quashed and resubmitted to the authority for redetermination.
Judge quashes planning condition sign off over council’s failure to meet environmental appraisal requirements #planning #environment #development https://t.co/PVtbOZjlma.
— Planning Magazine (@PlanningMag) February 5, 2024
