The Minister confirmed a compulsory purchase order despite it having been made without any supporting evidence.
Held: The order was set aside. The Minister had erred in not following his Inspector’s conclusion that a compulsory purchase order was not ‘reasonably necessary’ under section 43(2) of the 1957 Act, when there was no material on which he could properly reach a different conclusion.
Lord Denning MR said: ‘I know that on matters of planning policy the Minister can overrule the Inspector, and need not send it back to him, as happened in Lord Luke of Pavenham v Minister of Housing and Local Government. But the question of what is ‘reasonably necessary’ is not planning policy. It is an inference of fact on which the Minister should not overrule the Inspector’s recommendation unless there is material sufficient for the purpose. There was none here.’
Sachs LJ said that whereas the Inspector ‘may well be looked on as an expert for the purpose of forming an opinion of fact, the Minister is in a different position . . no Minister can personally be an expert on all matters of professional opinion with which his officers deal with from day to day.’
Judges:
Lord Denning MR, Sachs LJ, Buckley LJ
Citations:
[1971] 1 All ER 1049, (1971) 1 WLR 433, [1971] EWCA Civ 11
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Chant v Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and another Admn 1-Jul-2002
The applicant challenged an order requiring him to discontinue use of land on which were listed buildings in need of repair. The authority had concluded that compulsory purchase would not be sufficient to achieve the result required. The land owner . .
Cited – Wind Prospect Developments Ltd v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Another Admn 5-Dec-2014
The claimant appealed against refusal of permission to erect a six turbine wind farm. The inspector had recommended the plan, but the defendant had decided against it.
Held: The claim failed. The planning inspector’s report is the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land, Administrative, Housing
Updated: 20 August 2022; Ref: scu.181252
