A Reasoned Approach

In September 2016, the Court of Appeal ruled that Dover District Council had failed to give legally adequate reasons for its decision, against the advice of its planning officers, to grant planning permission for a controversial development partly in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) (R (on the application of Campaign to Protect Rural England) v Dover District Council [2016]). This was one of several recent cases which have dealt with, and have generated some uncertainty about, the duty to give reasons. Ralph Kellas examines a local planning authority's duty to give reasons, in light of recent case law.

This article was first published in Property Law Journal (March 2018) and is also available at www.lawjournals.co.uk.

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