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A 6 day public inquiry commenced today into an appeal by Williamsfield Developments Ltd into the refusal by East Riding of Yorkshire District Council of its application for outline planning permission for 67 dwellings on an unallocated greenfield site outside the settlement boundary at Hutton Cranswick. A central issue in the appeal is whether the Council is able to demonstrate a deliverable 5 year housing land supply ('5YHLS'). In 2017, the Council emphatically succeeded in fending off a sustained challenge to its claimed 5YHLS at 3 appeals by Gladman (in South Cave, Holm-on-Spalding Moor and Pocklington), two of which resulted in costs awards in favour of the Council. Those appeal decisions received a nationally high profile in the planning & development industry at the time and were treated as illustrative of the demanding task facing appellants seeking to interrogate a local authority's 5YHLS following the Court of Appeal's judgment in the St Modwen case concerning the interpretation of the definition of 'deliverable' in the 2012 National Planning Policy Framework. In the present Hutton Cranswick appeal, the Appellant is seeking to re-open the argument in reliance on the revised definition of 'deliverable' in the 2018 and 2019 versions of the NPPF and having regard to the accompanying Planning Practice Guidance. The Council contends that the Appellant has misunderstood the revised definition and that its application of the definition to the Council's claimed 5YHLS is misplaced. The decision of the Inspector (Philip Ware DipTP MRTPI) is likely to be one of, if not the, leading early appeal decisions on the effect of the new NPPF and PPG on determining 5YHLS in the context of planning decision-making. Charles Banner QC and Matthew Henderson appear for East Riding of Yorkshire Council, instructed by Peter Atkinson of the Council's legal department. Charles appeared in all 3 of the 2017 appeals in which the Council successfully defended its 5YHLS, with Matthew in the latter two.
