ABSTRACT
Most readers will have observed by now that the development control process has received a good deal of judicial interest. The purpose of this chapter is to describe, in outline only, how cases are brought before the courts, and the principal legal grounds upon which they are founded. This chapter is written primarily for the non-lawyer reader. The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 contains procedures for the legal review of certain decisions and actions of local planning authorities and the Secretary of State. Apart from these statutory procedures, there is also a right to judicial review under the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. In many circumstances, this latter right, which was in origin a common law right, is precluded by the statute, but where it is not precluded, it has provided a useful addition to the rights of aggrieved parties, as judicial review may be available in circumstances outside the scope of the statutory right to review.
