Stevenage loses high court core strategy case

The council was attempting to overturn a planning inspector's decision that its core strategy was unsound, but a high court judge quashed the attempt this week.

... Mr Justice Ouseley, said: "The soundness of the core strategy in reality foundered on a lack of lawful co-operation. The Stevenage Core Strategy is critically dependent for its practical implementation on a local authority which is opposed to that strategy and intends not to co-operate in its achievement."

Daniel Farrand, head of planning at Mishcon de Reya said: "While the case pre-dates royal assent of the Localism Act, the judge gives us perhaps the first hints of how the new duty to co-operate may be interpreted in practice."

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