The Forge Field Society & Ors, R (On the Application Of) v Sevenoaks District Council
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
- Mr Justice Lindblom
Areas of Law
- Administrative Law
- Environmental Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involves the Forge Field Society challenging planning permissions granted by Sevenoaks District Council for affordable housing on Forge Field. The Society alleged bias, statutory non-compliance regarding listed buildings and conservation areas, misdirection on AONB policy, failure to consider alternative sites, and irrationality. The court rejected the claims of bias, misdirection on AONB policy, and irrationality. However, it found non-compliance with statutory duties and inadequate consideration of alternative sites. As a result, both planning permissions were quashed, requiring new determinations.
Judgment
Mr Justice Lindblom:
Introduction
In the village of Penshurst in Kent there is a field called Forge Field, on which planning permission has twice been granted for a development of affordable housing. Those two planning permissions are the subject of these proceedings.
There are two claims for judicial review. The claimants in both are the Forge Field Society (“the Society”), an unincorporated association which opposes the development of Forge Field, its chairman, Mr Robert Rees, and its secretary, Mr Martin Barraud. In both claims the claimants seek an order to quash a decision of the defendant, Sevenoaks District Council (“the Council”), to grant planning permission for the proposal. In the first claim the claimants attacked the planning permission granted by the Council in October 2012. The second claim challenged the permission for the same development granted a year later in October 2013. The applicant for planning permission was the first interested party, the West Kent Housing Association (“West Kent”). The second interested party, Viscount De L’Isle, owns Forge Field through the Penshurst Place Estate.
On the second day of the hearing the Council abandoned its defence of the first planning permission. But it still maintained that the second had been lawfully granted.
Background
Penshurst is in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (“the AONB”) and the Metropolitan Green Belt. Forge Field is about a third of a hectare of rough grassland, sloping down from the High Street. It is in the Penshurst Conservation Area, within the settings of Star House, a grade II* listed building erected in 1610, and Forge Garage, a building in the Arts and Crafts style, now divided into the Old Smithy and Forge Garage Cottage, and listed at grade II.
In 2009 the Council accepted that the need for affordable housing in Penshurst should be met by building about five two-bedroom houses and making them available as affordable dwellings for local people.
West Kent submitted its first application to the Council in August 2011. It sought planning permission for six affordable dwellings, each with two bedrooms. In April 2012 the Becket Trust Housing Association (“the Becket Trust”) submitted an application for planning permission for affordable housing on another site in Penshurst, known as Becket’s Field. As originally submitted, the application was for the construction of 10 affordable dwellings on a site including land owned by West Kent. But th