PLANNINGStructure plan - local planning authorities jointly adopting structure plan including policy relating to particular housing development - authorities entitled to include policy in structure planJ S Bloor Ltd and another v Swindon Borough Council and others: QBD (Mr Justice Ouseley): 23 November 2001The borough council, which was an unitary authority, and the neighbouring county council jointly adopted a structure plan which included a policy relating in part to a new housing development involving 3,800 dwellings in the borough council's area.

The claimants made an application under section 287 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 questioning the validity of the structure plan on the ground that the policy in question was a detailed policy rather than a general policy and should have been included in a local plan.David Holgate QC and Richard Harwood (instructed by CMS Cameron McKenna) for the first claimant.

Stephen Morgan (instructed by Richard Buxton, Cambridge) for the second claimant.

Richard Drabble QC and Alice Robinson (instructed by the head of legal and administrative services, Swindon Borough Council, Swindon) for the local planning authorities.

Timothy Mould (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the secretary of state.

Christopher Lockhart-Mummery QC and Daniel Kolinsky (instructed by Eversheds) for Bryant Homes Limited, an interested party.Held, refusing the application, that section 31(2) of the Act provided that a structure plan was to include a statement of a local planning authority's 'general' policies, and section 36(2) provided that a local plan include a statement of an authority's 'detailed' policies; that once the court had determined, as a matter of law, the scope of the phrase 'general policy' the decision whether a particular policy was within its scope was a matter for the decision-maker provided that he had correctly directed himself as to its scope, and had reached a decision which fell within the scope of the phrase as a matter of law; that guidance as to the meaning of the phrase was to be found in the function which a structure plan performed in setting the framework for local plan making and development control decisions; that an impact beyond the boundary of any one district was not a necessary ingredient for a policy to be general; and that the policy, which covered the general direction of growth of a major town, could properly be seen as a general policy.