Sevenoaks District Council granted permission to bring judicial review against decision to reject its local plan
14:04, 11 June 2020
updated: 14:05, 11 June 2020
Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) has been granted permission to bring a judicial review against the planning inspector’s decision to reject its draft local plan.
The news has been welcomed by the council, and has been hailed as an important first step in getting their plan, which is the blueprint for development in the district up to 2035, approved.
In March, the final report on the examination of the council's local plan was published.
Inspector Karen Barker was not satisfied the council has worked with other local authorities to solve the unmet housing need and ruled the plan was not legally compliant in respect of the Duty to Co-operate.
However, SDC refute this, arguing more that more than 800 pages of evidence setting out how the council has worked with its neighbours, had been submitted with the plan.
Sevenoaks is the only local authority in the county to prepare a plan for fewer homes than would be suggested using the government's formula for "objectively assessed housing need".
The Sevenoaks' housing need figure came to 11,312 homes over its 16-year plan period, but the council decide to draw up a local plan that would provide only 9,996 homes, or 88% of the "requirement" arguing that the extensive area of green belt in the district made it impossible to meet the whole target.
'This is an important first step in getting our local plan approved...'
In April, the council began judicial review proceedings to overturn the inspector’s decision.
Cllr Julia Thornton, the council’s cabinet member for development and conservation, said: “This is great news as it means the High Court believes our position that the planning inspectorate may have a case to answer. This is an important first step to getting our local plan approved.
“We firmly believe we had followed the relevant guidance when we developed the plan. The evidence we provided to the planning inspector backs this up.
“Taking court action is not something we would take lightly, but we feel we have no choice.”
The High Court decision comes after a group of MPs backed the district council's local plan and urged the Secretary of State for Housing to overrule the decision to reject it.
