Cases - Phillips v First Secretary of State and Havant Borough Council and Hutchison 3G (UK) Ltd

Record details

Name
Phillips v First Secretary of State and Havant Borough Council and Hutchison 3G (UK) Ltd
Date
[2003]
Citation
EWHC 2415 (Admin)
Legislation
Keywords
Planning control
Summary

H submitted an application for prior approval for the siting and appearance of a phone mast. In the application H wrongly stated that the search area for a mast covering a 'cell' of 1.5 to 2 kilometres is only 100 to 200 metres in diameter. In fact it would extend to 400 or even 800 metres. Objectors could not identify an appropriate alternative site within a 200 metre diameter which was appropriate and only discovered that the search area was larger after an inspector had granted approval on appeal from the local planning authority. The claimant sought judicial review and in resisting this H argued that, as the inspector had found the proposed site entirely acceptable in planning terms, the existence of alternative sites was not a material consideration (citing Lord Justice Laws, see above).

Mr Justice Richards disagreed. He said:

'[PPG8] makes consideration of alternatives an integral part of the process of assessment of an application for approval of the siting of telecommunications structures.'

He went on to say that where there are two alternative sites, a decision maker could lawfully refuse approval for one of those sites if the location of a mast on that site would give rise to substantially greater public concerns than its location on the alternative site. (This is subject to the rights of a landowner of a site - see St Leger-Davey v Secretary of State for the Environment (2005).)