Paul Stinchcombe KC
Year of call: 1985
Silk: 2011
The High Court (Holgate J) has dismissed a challenge to the decision of Eastleigh Borough Council to grant planning permission for a 164m runway extension at Southampton Airport. The decision was challenged on the following grounds:
On (2), Holgate J found that there was nothing unlawful in the "inevitably broad" judgement reached by the Council on the significance of greenhouse gas emissions. Its treatment of the Government's Beyond the Horizon: The Future of UK Aviation: Making Best Use of Existing Runways policy had been lawful, as had its acceptance of the approach in the Environmental Statement (in line with guidance issued by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) of contextualising emissions against national budgets and aviation forecasts.
On (3), applying Paul Newman New Homes Ltd v SSHCLG [2021] PSTR 1054 and Wavendon Properties Limited v SSHCLG [2019] PTSR 2077, Holgate J reached the "firm conclusion" that there was no positive indication in the officer's report that the officer had failed to consider which policies were important for the purposes of paragraph 11(d) of the NPPF.
On (4), Holgate J found that Councillors had been entitled to take into account the risk of closure were the application to be refused, but that the "general tenor" of the discussion by Councillors was not that the Airport would close were the application refused.
Finally, on (5), Holgate J found that it was a matter for the Council (subject to Wednesbury review) as to how far to enquire into the figures put before them in support of the break-even point and that it was impossible to say that the Council had acted unreasonably by not requiring any additional independent input or further explanation.
For those reasons the claim was dismissed, and Holgate J refused the Claimant's application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
The full case name and citation is: R (GOESA Ltd) v Eastleigh Borough Council and Southampton International Airport Ltd [2022] EWHC 1221 (Admin). You can view the judgment here.
Paul Stinchcombe QC, Ned Helme and Catherine Dobson acted for the Council and James Strachan QC acted for the Airport.