Simmonds, R (on the application of) v Venture Properties Group and Ors (2023) EWHC 2217 (KB) (15 September 2023)

Simmonds, R (on the application of) v Venture Properties Group and Ors (2023) EWHC 2217 (KB) (15 September 2023)

This decision relates to a successful judicial review in the High Court by Geoffrey Simmonds (the claimant) to set aside the decision of Blaby District Council (the defendant) to grant planning permission and listed building consent to demolish an old milking shed and construct dwellings in Braunstone Town. It was challenged on four counts and was successful on only two, including the most relevant here. Count 1: the officer reports misled councillors at the parish council meeting by failing to consider paragraph 196 of the National Planning Policy Framework.

The old milking shed is contained within the curtilage of a Grade II listed farmhouse. Paragraph 196 of the NPPF provides that ‘evidence of deliberate neglect or damage to a heritage asset should not be taken into account in any decision’. This paragraph was not specifically mentioned in the reports, as officers did not consider that there was any evidence of deliberate neglect. However, a councillor raised the issue about the condition of the listed building at the parish council meeting. Officers told councillors that the maintenance of the building was not something they ‘get involved in’ and did not advise councillors of paragraph 196 (now paragraph 202 in the revised NPPF).

This article originally appeared in the Institute of Historic Building Conservation’s (IHBC’s) Context 179, published in March 2024. It was by written Alexandra Fairclough, conservation officer for Cheshire East, a lecturer and a member of the IHBC legal panel. A former planning inspector, she was called to the Bar in 2009, and before that was IHBC law and practice coordinator.

--Institute of Historic Building Conservation

Related articles on Designing Buildings Conservation.

• Conservation.
• Heritage.
• Historic environment.
• IHBC articles.
• Institute of Historic Building Conservation.
• Listed building.

National Planning Policy Framework.