Cheshire East Borough Council had challenged Pickles' decision because it said that the process of plan making would be damaged if planning permission for the scheme was granted and that planning permission should be refused on prematurity grounds because a new Core Strategy (CS) was being prepared.
The Council had initially rejected Richborough's outline plans, saying they conflicted with policies in its Local Plan which favoured previously developed brownfield land rather than countryside land for new developments. Pickles upheld the refusal on appeal in July 2011, despite planning inspector recommendations for approval.
The High Court quashed Pickles' decision in October 2011 and ordered him to re-determine the appeal. Pickles subsequently approved the scheme in December 2012, dismissing claims by the Council that granting permission would be premature because a new CS was under preparation.
The SoS had said in his decision letter (71-page / 780KB PDF) that granting permission would not prejudice the Council's plan making process for its CS. He said that "as the district housing requirement has yet to be determined through the CS", he did not consider there to be a "strong prematurity argument in this case".
The Council said that the SoS had failed to take into account the housing requirements in the Regional Strategy (RS). However, the judge noted that the SoS had expressly referred to the RS housing requirements and said that they were "plainly" taken into account.
"This is a helpful judgment in explaining the prematurity argument and how it may apply in future development being brought forward," said Jennifer Holgate, planning expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.
"It is clear that the judge has undertaken a comparison exercise against the size of this scheme of 269 dwellings against the estimated five year shortfall of between 2000 – 2600 new dwellings within the Council’s jurisdiction. It will be interesting to see how the larger developments, such as sustainable urban extension schemes and urban regeneration schemes, might fare should any such project be faced with similar circumstances to this case," she said.
