Judge backs Winslow Neighbourhood Plan

A developer, whose three sites are not included within the settlement boundary in the new Neighbourhood Plan for the Buckinghamshire town of Winslow, has failed in a judicial review challenge. Gladman Developments had challenged the lawfulness of the Neighbourhood Plan, the reasoning of the examiner who recommended that it be submitted to a referendum and the lawfulness of Aylesbury Vale district council’s decision to make the Neighbourhood Plan following a vote in its favour in July 2014. Gladman claimed that it was not permissible for the Neighbourhood Plan to include policies relating to a settlement boundary or the allocation of sites for housing at a time when the local planning authority had not yet adopted a development plan document containing strategic policies for meeting the objectively assessed housing needs of the district. It also alleged that the examiner failed to have regard to relevant planning guidance when considering the site assessment carried out as part of the process of preparing the Neighbourhood Plan. However, dismissing its claim for judicial review, Lewis J said: “A neighbourhood development plan may include policies relating to the use and development of land for housing in its neighbourhood even in the absence of any development plan document setting out strategic housing policies. The examiner was therefore entitled to conclude that the draft Neighbourhood Plan satisfied the requirement in paragraph 8(2)(e) of schedule 4B to the 1990 Act as it was in general conformity with such strategic policies as were contained in the development plan documents. “The examiner was also entitled to conclude that the Neighbourhood Plan, which provided for 455 new dwellings in a sustainable way, did make a contribution to the achievement of sustainable development and satisfied the condition in paragraph 8(2)(d) of schedule 4B to the 1990 Act.” He said that the examiner had regard to national planning policy, including the National Planning Policy Framework and the Planning Practice Guidance, and was entitled to conclude that it was appropriate to recommend that the Neighbourhood Plan should be submitted to a referendum. He was also entitled to conclude that the strategic environmental assessment report satisfied the requirements of EU law and gave adequate, intelligible reasons for his recommendations. He added: “In summary, therefore the examiner was entitled to recommend that the draft Neighbourhood Plan should proceed to a referendum. The council was entitled to make the Neighbourhood Plan in the light of the vote in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan at that referendum. Consequently, the Winslow Neighbourhood Plan is lawful.” Gladman, which has interests in three sites in the area that do not fall within the settlement boundary, had claimed that the 455 figure was not based on a true objective assessment of housing need for the area. The Queen on the application of Gladman Developments Ltd v Aylesbury Vale District Council Planning Court (Lewis J) 18 December 2014 Martin Kingston QC and James Corbet Burcher (instructed by Irwin Mitchell LLP) for the claimant Hereward Phillpot (instructed by Aylesbury Vale district council) for the defendant