High Court rules ‘nothing controversial’ about Milton Keynes homeless shelter

The High Court in London has rejected a challenge to build a homeless shelter at a converted bus shelter building in Milton Keynes. In October last year, Milton Keynes Council granted planning permission to change the use of a unit at The Old Bus Station building from being a youth community centre to a 19-bed night shelter for the homeless. Romeo Dance Academy operates from another unit in the building. The academy and some of its clients had sent letters of objection to the council, saying that homeless people waiting outside the shelter might cause difficulties for the academy’s customers, some of which are children. Despite this, a planning officer recommended granting planning permission and the council agreed without referring it to a planning committee. This is known as a ‘delegated decision’. In a hearing last month, lawyers of the dance academy argued that the decision was unreasonable because, under the council’s own rules, developments that are likely to be of a “controversial nature” aren’t suitable for delegated decisions and should be referred to a planning committee. At trial, the judge heard evidence from the planning officer involved who said that, because the 25 objections mostly came from customers of the dance academy, they mostly likely represented the true scale of opposition to the plan. He therefore decided that it wasn’t controversial. Lawyers for the dance academy said he misinterpreted the rule. Giving judgment today (4 March), Judge Elizabeth Cooke ruled that there was “no flaw” in the planning officer’s reasoning. “The Claimant argues that the decision was irrational because the officer took into account irrelevant considerations, namely the fact that most of them were made by customers of the claimant, and the fact that in [the planning officer’s] view there had been an attempt to garner objections,” she said. “I do not agree that [the planning officer] took into account irrelevant considerations,” she said. “On the contrary, the nature and source of those objections was central to what he had to consider, which was whether the application was likely to be controversial bearing in mind the level of public interest, and they indicated that it was likely to be low.” The academy also argued that “the nature of the development” is controversial. The judge rejected this. “I see nothing inherently controversial in the provision of accommodation for the homeless,” she said. “It accords with all the policies of the development plan and indeed is a form of development that the plan supports; the planning history of the building is unremarkable, and no concerns arise from its listed status. I agree that there is nothing in the nature of the development that makes it inevitably controversial.” “The claimant’s application to quash the decision is refused,” she said. The Queen (On the Application of Romeo Dance Academy Limited) v Milton Keynes Council Planning Court (Upper Tribunal Judge Elizabeth Cooke, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge), 4 March 2022