R v Bolsover District Council, ex parte Pepper
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 03 October 2000 |
| Date | 03 October 2000 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Before Mr Justice Keene
Local government - local authority's decision to sell land - decision not automatically a public law matter
Where a local authority exercised a statutory power to sell land it did not automatically mean that the decision was a public law matter, therefore it followed that a local authority decision not to sell land was also not automatically a public law matter and thus not amenable to judicial review.
Mr Justice Keene so held in the Queen's Bench Division when dismissing an application by John Pepper for judicial review of the decision of Bolsover District Council, on January 24, 2000 not to sell land to him.
Mr Pepper owned a parcel of land in Clowne, Derbyshire, adjacent to a recreation ground which was owned by the local authority and occupied and used by Clowne parish council. He sought permission to develop the land for housing.
Outline permission was initially granted but it was noted that access from the housing development to an nearby road would have to cross the local authority's land.
By resolution dated January 24, 2000 the local authority's executive committee decided that it would not sell the recreation land.
Mr Pepper sought judicial review contending that he had a legitimate expectation either that the local authority would sell the land needed for access or, alternatively that the local authority would at least give him an opportunity to make representations on the decision whether or not to sell.
Mr David Manley for Mr Pepper; Miss Mary Cook for Bolsover District Council.
MR JUSTICE KEENE said that in reliance on R v Barnet London Borough Council, Ex parte Pardes House School Ltd ([1989] COD 512), Mr Manley submitted that the local authority's decision was amenable to judicial review, simply because it was discharging a statutory power. He sought to distinguish R v Leeds City Council, Ex parte Cobleigh([1997] COD 69).
His Lordship said that there was no real distinction of any significance between the facts of that case and the present one. In both cases it was a future exercise of powers pursuant to section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 contemplated by the local authority; that was, sale of land.
The reports in the Crown Office Digest of both Ex parte Pardes House School and Ex parte Cobleigh were brief. It was not perhaps altogether easy to reconcile them if...
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R (Giuseppe Agnello and Fourteen Others, known as the Western International Campaign Group) v The Mayor and Burgess of the London Borough of Hounslow
...contract pursuant to a statutory power, is not susceptible to judicial review. Subsequently, Keene J (as he then was) in R v. Bolsover District Council ex parte Pepper [2001] JPL 804 explained that the judgment of Latham J in the Camden case “also indicated there may sometimes be a public l......
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Joanna Trafford v Blackpool Borough Council
...of judicial review in the absence of fraud, corruption or bad faith." 44 There is then a decision of Keene J (as he then was) in R v Bolsover DC ex p Pepper (3 October 2000, unrep.), where the claimant had sought to challenge the defendant council's refusal to sell an access strip of land t......
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R Peter Day v Shropshire Council
...a public law element sufficient to have entitled Dr Day to bring a judicial review challenge to the sale: see for example R v Bolsover District Council (Ex p Pepper) [2001] LGR 43, para 33. Dr Day could have challenged the failure to comply with section 123 at the time of the sale to CSE b......
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R v Kensington and Chelsea Royal London Borough Council
...in a private law action. He put particular emphasis on a decision of Keene J (as he then was) in the case of R v Bolsover District Council ex parte John Pepper (unreported 3rd October 2000). In that case the claimant challenged the refusal of the Council to sell certain land to him. The bas......