Town and country planning

The Supreme Court considered an appeal in respect of a compulsory purchase order made by a local authority in circumstances where for the purposes of s 226 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, in arriving at its decision, the authority had taken into consideration a commitment to develop another site.

Certain principles could be derived from case authority in the planning context: (i) the question of what was a material (or relevant) consideration for the purposes of what was s 70(2) of the 1990 Act was a question of law, but the weight to be given to it was a matter for the decision maker; (ii) financial viability might be material if it related to the development; (iii) financial dependency of part of a composite development on another part might be a relevant consideration, in the sense that the proposed development would finance other relevant planning benefits might be material; and