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ADT Auctions Ltd v Secretary Of State For Environment, Transport & Regions & Anor, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, March 16, 2000, [2000] EWHC Admin 305


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Case No: CO/4040/99

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL


Thursday 16 March 2000

B e f o r e :

THE HON MR JUSTICE JOWITT




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(Transcript of the Handed Down Judgment of
Smith Bernal Reporting Limited, 180 Fleet Street
London EC4A 2HD
Tel No: 0171 421 4040 0171 421 4040, Fax No: 0171 831 8838
Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
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David Elvin (instructed by Gouldens for the Claimant)
Timothy Corner (instructed by The Treasury Solicitor for the 1st Defendant)
Christopher Katkowski QC (instructed by Solicitor to Hart District Council for the 2nd Defendant)
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Judgment
As Approved by the Court

Crown Copyright ©







Mr Justice Jowitt:
1. This is a statutory appeal pursuant to section 288(1)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 against the decision of the first defendant, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, dismissing the claimant's appeal against a refusal by the second defendant, Hart District Council as Local Planning Authority, of an outline application for planning permission to develop for housing 5.68 hectares of low grade agricultural land lying south west to the edge of Yately in Hampshire. The proposal was to build 42 houses. There was an appeal against this refusal to the Secretary of State. He appointed an Inspector, Mr D P Machin (the first Inspector), to hold an inquiry and report to him so that he might decide the appeal. The inquiry was held over a period of 8 days in June and July 1996.

2. The appeal site was close to a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and there was at the time of the planning application and appeal a live proposal to designate the SSSI also as a Special Protection Area for Wild Birds (SPA) by reason of the presence on the site of breeding woodlarks, nightjars and Dartford warblers. I shall refer to the site as a conservation site. It is a site to which the public have access.

3. An important issue at the appeal hearing was whether and to what extent the proposed development would adversely affect environmentally the conservation site. It is this aspect of the planning appeal which is relevant in the appeal before me. Appearing before the first Inspector were the claimant, the second defendant, Hampshire County Council, English Nature and other interested parties and evidence was called and submissions were made by them about the environmental issue.
4. There was evidence that within the conservation site are to be found the largest remnant of heathland habitat and the largest valley bog/heathland complex in the north east Hampshire section of the Thames basin. As well as being a home for the three species of birds, which depend on the heathland, the conservation site is home for a particularly rich intervertebrate fauna, including a number of nationally rare and scarce species. Among the factors which it was said would lead to a degradation of this site from the building of the 42 houses were the added pressure on the conservation site from the activities of the residents and their cats and dogs, from the dumping of garden refuse, the escape of and deliberate planting ...
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