Secretary of State admits to “error of law” in victory for National Landscape and National Park campaigners in planning test case
The Dedham Vale Society and Campaign for National Parks have won a judicial review against the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, over the decision to approve the development of a significant car park extension and lighting at Manningtree Station, Essex, without observing a new legal duty to "conserve and enhance" National Parks and National Landscapes.
Lawyers acting for the Secretary of State have admitted to an “error of law” and now accept that the failure to apply new duty to the protected landscape was unlawful.
Charles Clover, chairman of the Dedham Vale Society, a charity founded in 1938 to protect Constable Country said: "This is an enormously important victory for the Vale and for protected landscapes everywhere. It means the new statutory duty on official bodies to 'conserve and enhance' National Landscapes and National Parks in their decisions must be complied with by all official bodies. Few have been doing so. This victory comes as a warning to all other official bodies with designs on the Dedham Vale - and any other protected landscapes - such as National Grid."
The case sets a critical precedent for all of England’s 10 National Parks and 34 National Landscapes (previously AONBs), making clear that all public bodies must comply with the law to further conservation and enhancement of these areas.
Dr Rose O'Neill from Campaign for National Parks said: “This is a hugely significant win. For too long, Government bodies, such as Ofwat, the Planning Inspectorate and National Highways, have turned a blind eye; the Secretary of State’s admission that this is unlawful paves the way for all others to wake up and take action.
“The ability of groups like ours to take judicial review is essential to safeguarding this country’s most cherished natural assets. This whole case could have been avoided if Government and developers complied with the law in the first place.”
Greater Anglia installed the 200-car extension with 58 new eight-metre lighting columns and 190-metre-long red steel wall along a regionally important footpath into Constable Country, St Edmund Way, without planning permission in 2020.
A planning inspector decided last May that, contrary to a previous decision by the local council, the development was unlikely to have a significant effect on the environment and that the development therefore fell within the remit of the permitted development regime. However, in doing so, as now admitted, she failed to consider the new statutory duty to "conserve and enhance" the National Landscape, previously known as the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Dedham Vale Society launched judicial review proceedings in August 2024, which the Government and Greater Anglia intended to fight. Campaign for National Parks was recently granted permission from the High Court to intervene, on the grounds that this case will set an important national precedent. However, following submission of legal arguments from the Dedham Vale Society and Campaign for National Parks, the Government’s defence crumbled. Just weeks before the case was due to be heard in Court, the Secretary of State admitted that the Government’s actions were unlawful and decided not to contest the case. In a Consent Order filed with the High Court on Monday, Government lawyers said:
“The Secretary of State accepts that the failure to apply the statutory duty to seek to further the purposes of the National Landscape when making the screening decision constitutes an error of law and the outcome might have been different had it been applied.”
The Government’s decision was therefore unlawful and is quashed. The Government has agreed to pay the Dedham Vale Society's costs.
At the time the inspector made her screening decision in May 2024, Tendring District Council were in the process of bringing enforcement proceedings against Greater Anglia for failure to obtain planning permission and had sought for the development, including the 190-metre long steel piling retaining wall, to be demolished.
Hannah Brown, from Richard Buxton Solicitors, solicitors for Dedham Vale Society said: “The revised duty places a high bar on actions that will impact England’s most valued landscapes and their settings. Properly applied, it will mean that decisions that affect these areas, such as the management of waterways, landscapes, cultural heritage, tranquillity and wildness will receive greater protection, and indeed be enhanced, as the Act anticipated.
“However, as this case shows, the Duty is not being applied as it should be. We hope the Dedham Vale Society’s case raises the profile of this important statutory protection to decision makers and the wider public, ensuring our most valuable landscapes receive the statutory protections they are entitled to.”
Leigh Day environment solicitor Carol Day, representing CNP, said: “The duty on public bodies introduced under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (LURA) 2023 created a set of new, proactive duties requiring them to seek to further the statutory purpose of National Landscapes, National Parks and the Broads. This means that public bodies must now be able to evidence the steps they’ve taken to taken to comply with these new duties.”
We are very grateful for the financial support the DVS received from generous members, organisations, companies and parish councils, especially Dedham and East Bergholt parish councils. Without that support, this action could not have gone forward.
