Judicial Review - Promptness

As all developers will know, a person wishing to review the decision of a planning authority through the courts has to bring their action “promptly” and, in any event, not later than 3 months after the grounds for the decision arose.

There has been debate over the years as to whether claims issued a few days before the expiry of the 3 months could be struck out on the basis that they had not been issued promptly and cases go both ways some judges allowing applications just within the 3 month time limit and others saying that they should have been brought earlier.

A recent decision of the European Court of Justice on public procurement regulations, where there is an identical provision for promptness with a 3 month backstop, has held that the requirement for promptness does not override the 3 month time limit. The 3 month time limit extends the time for the full period.

This decision may arguably be relevant to judicial review applications in the UK and, if it is, then it really raises the question of why the word “promptly” is needed at all if there is a full 3 months in order to make the application in any event.

If the ECJ ruling is followed then the English courts may follow a further ruling it made namely that the three months does not run from the date the aggrieved applicant knew about the decision, but only from the date they had details. Applying that to the normal case of a local planning authority making a resolution to grant followed by a full planning permission then, logically, the three month period will run from the date the aggrieved applicant could obtain a copy of the full planning permission rather than from the date of resolution

Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.

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