68-home plan for Ellesmere to go back before planning inspector after High Court ruling

It means developers will have to continue their wait to see whether they can build the homes on land at Teal Drive.

Developers were initially refused permission to build the development by Shropshire Council – but the decision was overturned by a Government planning inspector over claims the council did not yet have a five-year housing supply.

The local authority then appealed against the Government, taking the battle to the High Court with its argument that it did in fact have enough housing planned for the county.

At a recent High Court hearing, Mrs Justice Lang heard the council's challenge to the Secretary of State's decision to grant planning permission at appeal to build the homes.

In her judgement, Mrs Justice Lang confirmed that the planning inspector's reasoning was not lawful because he did not properly assess the evidence before him and he also failed to give adequate reasons for his decision.

As a consequence of this appeal decision being quashed, the application will now return to the Government Planning Inspectorate to be reconsidered.

Shropshire Council said it is a significant case because the inspector's reasoning was then quoted in numerous other ongoing housing appeals in Shropshire in an attempt to persuade inspectors to attach less weight to the council's adopted local plan.

Councillor Mal Price, Shropshire Council portfolio holder for housing and planning, said: "This is an important and significant decision for Shropshire and I hope it sends a clear message that the council will robustly defend the local plan, particularly where applicants or their agents pursue arguments in an attempt to undermine the primacy of the plan for decision taking in Shropshire."

In the last reporting year Shropshire Council dealt with the third highest number of planning appeals nationally; many of these concerned speculative housing schemes that do not comply with the adopted local plan policy.

Despite dealing with an extremely high number of planning appeals, the council also has one of the highest success rates with over 80 per cent of appeals being dismissed.