Dartford Borough Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2017] EWCA Civ 141
Dartford previously developed land is a Court of Appeal judgment on a deceptively simple question: did the NPPF exclude every private residential garden from the definition of brownfield land, or only gardens in built-up areas?
The court held that the words meant what they said. Under the definition then in force, the exclusion applied to land in built-up areas, with private residential gardens given as one example. A garden or residential curtilage outside a built-up area was not automatically excluded.
Important legal note: Planning Geek is a planning consultancy, not a law firm. This page provides general planning information and is not legal advice. Case law must be read in its factual and legal context and may be affected by later judgments, legislation or policy. Where the original judgment is available, it remains the authoritative source. If the outcome matters to a live case or dispute, take advice from an appropriately qualified planning solicitor or barrister.
Copyright and licensing: Crown copyright and other rights in judgments and source material remain with the relevant rights holders. Where a judgment is reproduced from Find Case Law, it is used under the Open Justice Licence and the source should be acknowledged. Material obtained from other sources is reproduced only where the applicable terms permit it. Planning Geek does not claim copyright in the text of court judgments.
- Neutral citation
- [2017] EWCA Civ 141
- Court
- Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
- Judgment date
- 14th March 2017
- Judge
- Lady Justice Gloster and Lord Justice Lewison
- Case number
- C1/2016/1664
What Dartford previously developed land decided
The case concerned land within the residential curtilage of Shirehall Farm in the Green Belt. An Inspector granted permission for a private Gypsy and Traveller caravan site comprising one mobile home and one touring caravan.
The Inspector treated the appeal site as previously developed land because it was within the curtilage of a permanent structure and was not caught by the exclusion for land in built-up areas.
Dartford Borough Council argued that all private residential gardens should be excluded wherever they were located. The Court of Appeal dismissed that argument.
The phrase “such as” mattered
The definition excluded “land in built-up areas such as private residential gardens, parks, recreation grounds and allotments”.
Lewison LJ held that, as ordinary English, the examples following “such as” were examples of the general category which came before them: land in built-up areas.
The court therefore refused to rewrite the definition so that every private residential garden was excluded regardless of location.
Planning policy should be read as published
Dartford is also a useful policy-interpretation authority. The NPPF is intended to be a public, self-contained statement of national policy. Where its language is clear, readers should not have to research earlier versions of policy or old ministerial statements to discover a different meaning.
The court accepted that planning policies can pull in different directions and should not be interpreted like a perfectly internally consistent contract.
Green Belt policy still controlled what redevelopment could achieve
Treating land as previously developed did not mean that any development on it would be acceptable.
The Green Belt policy then in force contained a separate redevelopment exception which required the proposal not to have a greater impact on openness and Green Belt purposes than the existing development. The brownfield definition and the Green Belt development-control test therefore performed different jobs.
The definition quoted in Dartford is historical
Dartford remains important as an interpretation case, but current applications must use the current NPPF definition of previously developed land. National policy has changed several times since 2017, including the introduction of grey belt.
For the current position, see our guide to previously developed land and our overview of green belt, grey belt, greenfield and brownfield land.
Read the full Dartford judgment
The full Court of Appeal judgment is held in the Planning Geek case law library. Gold Members can open the protected PDF below.
Dartford Previously Developed Land Case Law Page Updated: 10th September 2026