Out-Law News 2 min. read

Tewkesbury lodges challenge to Pickles' 1000-home approval


Tewkesbury Borough Council has lodged a challenge against the decision by Secretary of State Eric Pickles to approve two major housing developments in Bishop's Cleeve in Gloucestershire. 

The Council said in a statement that Pickles' decision was inconsistent with the Localism Act and the principles behind it and that Pickles had failed to take account of the Council's emerging Core Strategy and "widespread" local opposition to the plans.

Pickles granted permission in July this year to Comparo Ltd. for the development of 450 homes at Homelands Farm, and to Welbeck Strategic Land to build 550 homes to the north west of Bishop's Cleeve at a site known as Cleevelands.

Pickles said in his decision letter (110-page / 1.42MB PDF) that the most significant material consideration was the National Planning Policy Framework requirement for a five-year housing land supply. He said that the emerging core strategy for the area, which the Council is developing jointly with Cheltenham and Gloucester, was "unlikely to rectify in time" the housing supply issue. Other than granting permission, there would be no other "credible way" of reducing the five year land supply shortfall, he said.

The Council subsequently announced that it intended to challenge the decision, saying it considered the decision goes against the Government's "declared policy of removing top-down planning" and to allowing planning decisions to be made at local level.

The Council said that it has now had legal advice on the merits of Pickles' decision. It said that the challenge it has lodged is "based on the need to deliver housing in a way that is consistent with central government policy, which focuses on locally-based decisions about the scale and location of housing development".

"A senior planning barrister has advised that there is a strong case to challenge the Secretary of State's decision," said the Council's lead member for built environment, Derek Davies. "There is an overarching principle in planning that requires policy to be interpreted and applied in such a way that is consistent with the reasons behind that policy. We feel that the Secretary of State has failed to apply this principle in this case."

"The Council is concerned that the Government appears to be imposing decisions in an ad hoc way through the appeal process before decisions on the future development of the area have been made at a local level in accordance with the Government's localism agenda. There are already a number of existing permissions throughout the borough for new housing, and the relatively slow speed of house-building on these sites, where indeed work has started, indicates that it is not a lack of planning permissions that is delaying the delivery of housing," Davies said.

"While we fully support the need to provide housing to meet current and future needs, this should be through a plan-led process, and we are continuing to work with our partners at Cheltenham and Gloucester on a Joint Core Strategy that will aim to meet those needs on a properly planned local basis," he said.

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