Official Decisions Change Lives and Intelligible Reasons Are Required

19/02/2018


Transparency really does matter and official decision-makers are required to explain their reasons for reaching conclusions that affect people’s lives. That definitely did not happen in one case in which the High Court sent a man’s house-building plans back to the drawing board.

The man had obtained outline planning consent to build a new home in the grounds of his house. When he applied to the local authority for approval of his detailed plans, however, a neighbour objected. The matter was delegated to the council’s chief executive, who waved through the proposal.

The neighbour complained that the house approved was very different from the building proposed when the outline consent was granted. The former had a larger footprint and was in a different position in relation to boundaries, and its construction would require more trees to be felled.

In upholding the neighbour’s judicial review challenge, the Court noted that the chief executive was required to produce a written record of her decision and to give intelligible reasons for reaching it. However, she had done neither, instead merely endorsing the recommendations of one of the council’s planning officers.

Her failure to give any reasons for her decision indicated that she had had no regard to the neighbour’s objections. In the circumstances, her decision was quashed and the council was directed to reconsider the man’s application.

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