Planning court will let residents block developers
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Your support makes all the difference.Thousands of home owners could be given new rights of appeal against developers under a government proposal to create an environment court of justice.
Thousands of home owners could be given new rights of appeal against developers under a government proposal to create an environment court of justice.
The move would end the Government's role in the final determination of controversial schemes such as Heathrow Airport's terminal five and the Newbury by-pass. Instead, development decisions would be considered by a court of law. It is hoped the new court would end the need for lengthy and expensive public inquiries.
The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) is studying a feasibility report looking at the establishment of a new court to hear all planning and environment appeals. It would have a separate jurisdiction and be presided over by specialist judges with experience in hearing environment cases.
Under the proposals, third parties, who currently have no right to mount an appeal, would be allowed to challenge a decision to the granting of planning permission.
The move follows concern that Britain's planning and environment appeals system is illegal under human rights laws, which stipulate all tribunals must be fair and impartial. All planning appeals, from garages to airports, are currently heard in the name of the Secretary of State for the Environment.
The House of Commons environment committee, which has seen the DETR report written by Professor Malcolm Grant, head of the department of land economy at Cambridge University, has thrown its weight behind the proposal. The Labour chairman, Andrew Bennett, described the appeals system as "uneven and unfair."
His committee has rejected the "suck it and see" approach to the Human Rights Act advocated by the chief planning inspector, which decides 99 per cent of appeals in the name of the secretary of state. The committee also described the DETR's attitude overall as "unhelpful."
Under the current system, developers can appeal when their application is refused. But someone directly affected by a proposal has no right to appeal against local authority planning permission or a successful appeal by a developer of a refusal of planning permission.
Last month, a ruling by Scotland's Court of Session highlighted the unfairness of the system. The court held that Scottish ministers had improperly intervened in an application involving a listed building, because there was no independent and impartial tribunal capable of determining it.
Professor Grant said: "The time has come for the Government to confront the fundamental changes in decision making in planning that are necessary to ensure compatibility with the Human Rights Act, and to elevate citizens' rights above administrative convenience."
He said he hoped his study would be taken forward by the Government as soon as possible.
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