Wychavon District Council has secured permission to take its challenge to the Government’s planning intervention to a substantive High Court hearing in December.
The Wychavon High Court challenge is aimed at overturning the council’s designation under section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The designation gives applicants for certain major developments the choice of applying directly to the Planning Inspectorate rather than Wychavon.
From protest to a High Court hearing
The Government designated Wychavon on 15th June 2026 on the quality of its decision-making on major applications. The formal notice says the Secretary of State considered data for the two-year period ending on 31st March 2025, together with subsequent appeal decisions to 31st December 2025.
Wychavon immediately disputed the intervention. The council said the historic measure showed 10.7% of its refusals of major applications being allowed on appeal, just above the Government’s 10% designation threshold, while more recent performance had improved substantially.
Its own figures for 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2026 put the equivalent rate at 5.2%. That difference now sits at the heart of the council’s legal challenge. Wychavon says more recent performance evidence should have been taken into account when the designation decision was made.
The legal action was confirmed by the council’s Executive Board on 16th September. Ian Macleod, Wychavon’s Director of Planning, Infrastructure and Urban Design, has since confirmed that the court has granted permission for the judicial review to proceed.
A two-day hearing is expected at Birmingham Civil Justice Centre on 8th and 9th December 2026.
The designation remains in force
The court proceedings have not suspended the designation. Wychavon’s own planning pages continue to state that it took effect on 15th June and will remain in place until formally withdrawn.
That does not mean Wychavon has lost the power to determine every major planning application. Applicants for qualifying major development have an additional route: they can still apply to Wychavon in the normal way, or choose to submit directly to the Planning Inspectorate. Existing applications, householder applications and other development outside the designation continue through the council.
Planning Geek explains that alternative route in its guide to Section 62A applications.
Why the Wychavon High Court challenge matters
The December hearing will move the dispute beyond political criticism of the designation and into a substantive examination of whether the Government acted lawfully when it imposed it.
The court has not yet decided whether Wychavon’s arguments are right. Permission for judicial review means the claim can proceed to a full hearing, not that the designation has already been found unlawful.
For applicants in Wychavon, the immediate position therefore stays the same while the case is pending.
Read the Wychavon Section 62A designation notice and the council’s current application guidance.
0 Comments