Laura Sharman 05 June 2020

Council gets go-ahead for local plan judicial review

Sevenoaks District Council has been given permission to bring a judicial review against the government's planning inspector’s after it refused to endorse its local plan.

The planning inspector had argued the council had failed to work with neighbouring authorities over delivering the level of housing needed.

The High Court has now given the go ahead for the legal proceedings to progress by agreeing the council's claims are 'arguable'.

Cllr Julia Thornton, the council’s cabinet member for development & 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. In our opinion, the planning inspector has incorrectly interpreted key parts of the Local Plan requirements.

'Taking court action is not something we would take lightly, but we feel we have no choice.'

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