The High Court has found in favour of a request for a judicial review of the decision made by the Planning Inspectorate to grant planning permission for 400 houses in the setting of Grade 1 listed Kedleston Hall.
The Inspector had concluded that there had to be a physical or visual connection going beyond the historic social and economic connections between the Hall and its estate “otherwise land completely remote from the Hall could be deemed within its setting”.
The High Court agreed with the submission of the local group challenging the decision and Historic England that the Inspector had adopted an artificially narrow approach to the issue of setting which treated visual connections as essential and determinative. It concluded that in adopting this approach, the Inspector made an error of law.