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Town Legal and Landmark Chambers launches updated Planning Court Case Explorer

Planning Court Case Explorer 1500 x 900 px 1

The hugely useful free data tool Planning Court Case Explorer has now been updated to include 766 cases!

The Case Explorer has been designed to provide anyone interested in the planning process with free-to-access data in relation to all cases which have been handed down in the Planning Court following a full hearing, since the creation of the Court in 2014 up to 31 August 2023. The Case Explorer also includes data on cases subsequently heard in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

There’s a transcript available for each case (Planning Court: 591, Court of Appeal: 160; Supreme Court: 15) and also a summary, by Town Legal lawyers, provided as part of their free weekly Town Library service, of all judgments since 2017. Cases have been categorised by Landmark’s Rebecca Sage, Harley Ronan and Barney McCay.

Town Legal Partner Simon Ricketts says: “We do not vouch for the absolute accuracy of the Case Explorer and cannot guarantee that nothing has slipped the net. But we hope that is a useful jumping off point for initial research.“

Town Legal have provided the following examples of routes you might take through the information:

Know your subject area… If your research task is, for instance, statutory challenges to local plans you will find 222 of them. You want to see which these are? They are all there.

Know your judge… You can search the cases by judge. (By the way, Lang J has handed down more Planning Court judgments than any other judge: 106. Holgate J stands at 54, Dove J at 38).

Who are the most active litigants? In terms of the private sector and NGOs, whether as claimant or interested party, way out in front is Gladman, at 16 (including three appeals); second is Redrow at 8; joint third are Friends of the Earth and the Open Spaces Society, both at 6. In terms of the public sector, we have four authorities which are all at 9: Canterbury, Lambeth, Maidstone and Westminster.

Again, in every instance you can click through to the actual judgment transcripts – and, usually, Town Legal case summaries.

Predicting likely timescales is so often critical… The average duration of a case, from the date of the decision that is challenged to the date of handing down of the Planning Court’s judgment following a full hearing is 333 days, if you consider all of the 591 judgments handed down since 2014. If you just consider the 12 judgments handed down in Q3 2023 up to 31 August, the period rises to 393. (Bear in mind that these statistics do not include cases that do not reach a full hearing, having been sieved out at permission stage or withdrawn – it would be extremely useful to have this further information).

Town Legal and Landmark Chambers will be doing some more in-depth analysis over the coming weeks. If you would be interested in any of the output please contact Simon Ricketts or Mike Gooch at Landmark Chambers.

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