The Court of Appeal has quashed planning permission for cabins and other buildings at a fishing centre in Sussex because the inspector who gave it consent failed to give adequate reasons for applying a policy in the local district plan.
The Court upheld an application by a neighbour Michael Parker who objected to Wylands International Angling Centre's proposal to replace nine caravans and some buildings with 15 cabins for fishermen.
The application at Catsfield had been rejected by Rother District Council but upheld on appeal.
The High Court had rejected Mr Parker's application on all grounds but permission to proceed to the higher court was later obtained only in respect of policy EM10 in the local plan which rejects chalet or static caravan development unless it significantly improved the look of the area or was essential for a rural enterprise.
Lord Justice Elias rejected the view that the inspector had misunderstood the policy.
He agreed the inspector was right to consider that four units of accommodation were "chalets" even though they were created from a cowshed and that this was, therefore, an existing site.
But he was concerned by the inspector's reasons for his decision and it was unclear whether his report had applied to touring caravans, static caravans, chalets or some combination of them.
Nor was he entitled to have regard to the static caravans as these could not lawfully be used to provide accommodation.
"There is a real question mark over whether the inspector properly directed himself as to the appropriate factors to consider when assessing the nature of the site," says the judgement.
"Whilst I am not satisfied that he wrongly understood what the policy required, I am left in real doubt how he applied the policy to the facts. Reasons would have resolved that one way or the other. Without reasons, the appellant is not able to say whether the inspector has reached a conclusion in accordance with the law or not. So the case falls squarely within Lord Brown's category of cases where the challenge to reasons must succeed."
