Simon Gallagher, Director of Planning at MHCLG (S2 E2)

Our Very Special Guest this week is Simon Gallagher, Director of Planning at MHCLG. Simon is leading the civil service in the Ministry in respect of the Planning White Paper and the consultation on the Changes to the Current Planning System. Court Judgments of the Week Norfolk Homes V North Norfolk DC [2020] EWHC 2265 a decision of Holgate J confirming that a planning permission granted pursuant to section 73 was not subject to a section 106 obligation which governed the original no longer extant permission. Gathercole V Suffolk CC [2020] EWCA Civ 1179 a decision of the Court of Appeal dismissing an appeal upholding the County Council’s grant of permission for a new primary school despite a failure to have due regard to the public sector equality duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 in respect of the effect of aircraft noise on children with protected characteristics. Appeals of the Week Successful appeal by Retirement Villages & Nottcuts Ltd for a 84 unit C2 facility against decision of Mid Sussex dated 11 September 2020 in circumstances where the proposal was contrary to the recently adopted Mid-Sussex Local Plan and the most important policies were judged up to date Highthorn a Secretary of State redetermination of a mineral appeal whereby, contrary to the inspector’s recommendation, the appeal was dismissed. This raises issues around the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, the application of footnote 65 to [205] & [211 (b)] of NPPF, the need for coal as well as less than substantial harm to heritage assets.