Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation [1947] EWCA Civ 1; [1948] 1 KB 223
The point in plain English: A court reviewing a public authority is not there to make the decision again. It can intervene where the authority has misunderstood the law, considered the wrong things, ignored matters it was legally bound to consider, or reached a conclusion outside the range open to a reasonable authority.
What the Court of Appeal decided
This was not a planning case. It concerned a condition on a Sunday cinema licence excluding children under fifteen. The Court upheld the condition and explained the limited circumstances in which a court may interfere with an executive discretion entrusted by Parliament to a public authority.
Lord Greene MR’s reasoning became the foundation of what lawyers call Wednesbury unreasonableness or irrationality. The court does not substitute its preferred outcome merely because it might have decided the matter differently.
Why Planning Geek lists it
Planning decisions repeatedly use the same public-law concepts: relevant and irrelevant considerations, proper statutory purpose and irrationality. Later planning cases including Tesco Stores expressly apply Wednesbury.
See Planning Geek’s guide to judicial review and section 288 challenges.
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