It is possible for the plan to be challenged under s.113 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Any challenge has to be made within six weeks of the plan being adopted.
We has now been served with notice of two applications to legally challenge the local plan, which could lead to a Judicial Review of our decision to adopt the plan.
The applications have been made in relation to RUR7 Land off Clappins Lane, Naphill and BE2 Hollands Farm, Bourne End and Wooburn.
There are two stages to the process:
- The court has to first give permission for a challenge to be heard. This is based on an initial assessment of the claims made by the applicants and the Council’s response to those claims.
- If permission is given then claims will be heard in the High Court and a judgement will be made whether the contested parts of the plan are quashed and if the remainder of the plan should remain in force or not.
In the meantime, this does not change the status of the plan. It is still adopted and decisions on planning applications will be made in accordance with policies in the plan.
Update 24 August 2020
Following the rejection last month by a High Court judge of the legal challenge to the Local Plan by local residents group, Keep Bourne End Green (KBEG), KBEG have now applied for permission for the case to be heard in the Court of Appeal. We do not have any indication of timescales for when there will be a decision on this.
Update 23 July 2020
The judge, the Honourable Mr Justice Holgate, has now issued his judgment following the 2 day hearing on 23 and 24 June. He has dismissed the legal challenge. You can read the judgment below:
High Court Ruling on Wycombe District Local Plan
Update 21 May 2020
The hearing for the Judicial Review has now been set 2 days on June 23 and 24. We currently do not have details of how the hearing will be conducted in light of the current movement restrictions. Once we have more information we will update the website.
Update 23 March 2020
The “permission hearing” for the KBEG legal challenge took place in the High Court on March 18 – the judge decided to grant permission for a full hearing in the High Court on all but one of the grounds in KBEG’s original claim.
There are no timescales for a hearing at present. We will provide an update as soon as we have a date.
You can read the ruling below:
Note: The decision document is a scanned document and is not accessible. If you require the document as an accessible format please email webmanager.wyc@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
Update March 2020
The Council has now been notified of the date for the oral hearing for the legal challenge submitted by Keep Bourne End Green to the Local Plan. This will be on March 18th in the High Court in London. Details of the court and timing will be published on the Justice website after 2.30 pm on 17th March on the Justice website (external website).
The oral hearing is an opportunity for all parties to set out their position for a judge to determine whether a legal challenge should be heard. This is a right offered when an application for Judicial review has been refused by a Judge.
Update 16 January 2020
Just before Christmas the Council received the news that the challenge by Keep Bourne End Green in relation to the allocation of Hollands Farm (BE2) in the Local Plan had been unsuccessful. Judge Waksman considering the case reasoned that the issues raised in the challenge were those of planning judgement rather than legal issues.
Part of the process allows the challenging body to request that the request for a judicial review be heard at an oral hearing if permission has been refused. Keep Bourne End Green have made this request. We are waiting to hear when this hearing will take place.
You can read the full decision below.
Note: The decision document is a scanned document and is not accessible. If you require the document as an accessible format please email webmanager.wyc@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.
Note: The decision document is a scanned document and is not accessible. If you require the document as an accessible format please email webmanager.wyc@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.
Update 11 December 2019
We have successfully defended the inclusion of the Clappins Lane site in the adopted local plan. On 29 November Judge J Lieven agreed that there were no legal grounds to challenge our decision to adopt of the local plan. The judge confirmed that the challenge was to the merits of the decision and that there was no “arguable error of law”.
RUR7 is a greenfield site that is allocated for approximately 64 dwellings. We were challenged over whether the allocation and the subsequent development of the site would be "major development" in the Chilterns AONB, whether there was justification or “exceptional circumstances” to remove the site from the greenbelt, and whether we had considered reasonable alternatives to this site.
You can read the full decision below:
Note: The decision document is a scanned document and is not accessible. If you require the document as an accessible format please email webmanager.wyc@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.
We are still awaiting to hear if the second legal challenge will be successful in getting to the High Court.