High Court clarifies when LPAs can decline to determine repeated planning applications (Re Evans v Bridgend County Borough Council)

Article summary

Planning analysis: In considering whether a previously refused planning application dismissed on appeal which was subsequently re-submitted as two smaller planning applications on a sub-divided site within two years of the refusal could be determined as the same or substantially same as the previous application, Judge Jarman KC confirmed that the applications could not be considered together. Each smaller planning application should be considered separately under under section 70A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) on its own merits. He also emphasised that the test was not whether the applications are hopeless but rather whether they are the same or substantially the same. He went on to conclude as to the facts in the case that an application for outline permission for nine dwellings on approximately half of the area of the previous application site cannot sensibly be regarded as substantially the same as an application for outline permission...