Dairy Farm Judicial Review

Mr Justice Jay in the High Court quashed a retrospective permission granted by Torridge District Council for adaptions made to agricultural buildings which enabled a dairy herd to be housed and milked in the buildings.  Richard Buxton Solicitors represented the residents living across the lane from the buildings.

The Claimants raised three grounds of challenge:

• That the Council unlawfully concluded that the applicant had a fall-back position of being able to operate the site as a dairy farm without the unauthorised development.
• That the Council failed to accord great or considerable weight to Natural England’s objection in relation to two Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
• That the Council failed to obtain sufficient information in relation to the odour impacts.

The main legal battleground in the case was whether the Council had properly relied on the applicant’s “fall-back” position (i.e. the position without the relevant permission).  The Court found that although the Council did consider whether the applicant could have legally housed cattle in the buildings in the absence of permission, the Council failed to consider whether the applicant would have done so.  This failure was fatal to the decision, and success on Ground 1 essentially led to success on Grounds 2 and 3.

Accordingly, Mr Justice Jay found that the Claimants’ three grounds were made out and awarded the Claimants’ costs of £35,000.

Piers Riley-Smith, Kings Chambers, was instructed.