Jane Stevens v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government & Anor [2013] EWHC 792 (Admin)
Stevens Article 8 is a leading Planning Court judgment on how a planning decision-maker should deal with the best interests of children when Article 8 private and family life is engaged.
The court held that children’s best interests are a primary consideration, but not the paramount consideration and not automatically decisive. They must be properly identified and kept at the forefront while the decision-maker carries out the wider planning balance.
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- Neutral citation
- [2013] EWHC 792 (Admin)
- Court
- High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court
- Judgment date
- 10th April 2013
- Judge
- Mr Justice Hickinbottom
- Case number
- CO/1689/2011
What the Stevens Article 8 case decided
Jane Stevens and her extended Gypsy family lived on land at The Paddocks, Ripley, without planning permission. The site was in the Green Belt and a conservation area. She sought temporary planning permission while alternative Gypsy and Traveller sites were expected to come forward.
The Inspector dismissed the planning and enforcement appeals but extended the period for compliance to one year. The High Court dismissed the section 288 challenge.
The child’s best interests must first be identified
Hickinbottom J drew on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Supreme Court decision in ZH (Tanzania). Where children are affected, the decision-maker must identify what outcome is in their best interests.
That exercise is specific to the individual children. Matters can include the stability of their home, schooling, health, family relationships and the effect of having to move.
A primary consideration is not the same as the paramount consideration
The court rejected the suggestion that children’s interests automatically outweigh other planning considerations.
They are a primary consideration, which means they carry special importance and must be kept at the forefront of the decision-maker’s mind. But planning decisions often involve several competing public and private interests. Once the children’s interests have been identified, the decision-maker must still carry out the whole planning balance.
No other consideration begins with an inherent right to greater weight. Equally, the child’s interests do not begin as an automatic trump card.
The decision does not need magic words
An Inspector does not have to recite a particular formula such as “primary consideration” if the substance of the reasoning shows that the children’s interests were properly understood and weighed.
In Stevens, the Inspector had considered the children’s education, the benefit of a settled base, health and family circumstances, and had extended the compliance period to reduce disruption. The High Court was satisfied that she had dealt with their interests lawfully.
Article 8 proportionality remains a planning balance
Article 8 does not remove the normal planning context. The court recognised that planning is an area of broad social policy where decision-makers have to balance personal circumstances against matters such as Green Belt protection, landscape harm and the integrity of planning control.
Where the Inspector has correctly identified the rights involved and carried out a proper proportionality assessment, the court gives significant respect to that expert planning judgment.
See our guide to human rights and planning enforcement and our current page on Gypsy and Traveller sites.
The visual-harm challenge also failed
A separate ground argued that there was no evidential basis for the Inspector’s finding that the development was visually prominent. The court rejected that challenge. The Inspector had visited the site and was entitled to reach her own planning judgment on its visual effect.
Read the full Stevens judgment
The full High Court judgment is held in the Planning Geek case law library. Gold Members can open the protected PDF below.
Stevens Article 8 Case Law Page Updated: 9th September 2026