Lords stave off planning chaos

Planning lawyers this week welcomed a landmark House of Lords decision overturning a court ruling which threatened to throw the planning system into chaos.

However, specialist practitioners still called for reform of the planning laws.The law lords agreed with the High Courts decision last December in four test cases, known collectively as the Alconbury cases, that the environment secretarys calling in of sensitive and controversial planning applications was not an independent and impartial tribunal as required by the European Convention of Human Rights.

However, in overturning the Court of Appeal, they said that decisions made by the secretary of state were open to judicial review by the courts and that this was enough to satisfy the human rights requirement.

Simon Ricketts, a partner in the planning department of City firm SJ Berwin, said the decision had pulled the planning system back from the brink of chaos.

He explained: If the House of Lords had upheld the original decision, the entire planning legislation would have had to be rewritten to take the secretary of state out of all decision making, and the system would be in absolute chaos for years.However, he warned that the judgment may have gone slightly too far.

I still feel that there are some aspects of the planning system which do need to be reviewed, and I think that the secretary of state needs to be more accountable in his decision-making capacity, he said.

Tony Kitson, head of planning at City firm CMS Cameron McKenna, also welcomed the decision.

Effectively, this now means business as usual for practitioners and clients, he said.

The rather awkward period of uncertainty for everyone is now over.

Kate Hall, chairman of the Law Societys planning and environmental law committee, said she acknowledged the sensible approach of the House of Lords decision.

However, she added: The next step now is for the government to review the planning laws or there will continue to be legal challenges to the planning system.Victoria MacCallum