Stroud District Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The claimant local planning authority challenged a decision of the inspector appointed by the defendant Secretary of State to allow an appeal against its decision, refusing permission for development of 150 houses on land lying outside the boundaries of the Cotswold area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB). The Administrative Court, in dismissing the application, held that the inspector had not erred in equating valued landscape with designated landscape and had not adopted an unlawful approach to the meaning of valued. Further, the policy was not intended to cover views of the AONB from outside the AONB.