AC-2024-MAN-000347 - [2025] EWHC 2630 (Admin)

For the reasons I have given, the Claimant’s case under this ground is founded on a misunderstanding of the intervention by Ms Hunt upon which the Claimant’s seeks to rely. Read in context, it is clear that Ms Hunt neither misunderstood the Sandford principle nor made a legally erroneous statement to her Committee colleagues on its application. In any event, the Sandford principle was correctly stated in the Report for the benefit of members of the Committee who, the record shows, had a clear and correct understanding of what the principle required of them in determining the planning application. They reminded themselves of the Sandford principle during the course of their discussion of the planning application. The Claimant’s contention that the Committee was misled into error in applying the Sandford principle when they decided to grant the planning permission cannot be sustained. The evidence does not support the conclusion that the Committee failed properly to understand and to apply the Sandford principle when they reached their decision on 1 May 2024.

Ground 1 is rejected.