Cases - St Albans City and District Council v Secretary of State for the Environment and Allied Breweries

Record details

Name

St Albans City and District Council v Secretary of State for the Environment and Allied Breweries

Date

[1993]

Citation

1 PLR 88

Keywords

Planning control

Summary

The planning authority challenged an inspector's decision on the ground that he had not applied section 54A. They contended that there must be strong contrary planning grounds to justify a departure from the development plan, and reference was made to the then current Planning Policy Guidance Note 1 which stated that an applicant 'would need to produce convincing reasons to demonstrate why the plan should not prevail'.

The judge preferred the words of the statute. He said:

'Undoubtedly section 54A does set up a presumption in favour of the development plan, but for its rebuttal it is sufficient if there are "material indications which indicate otherwise".'

The judge observed that a failure to refer expressly to section 54A is not fatal so long as the requirements are met.