Wychavon District Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government & Ors [2008] EWCA Civ 692
Wychavon Green Belt is an important Court of Appeal judgment on what can amount to very special circumstances. The court rejected the idea that the factors relied upon must first be shown to be unusual or exceptional in their own right.
The real question is whether the other considerations, taken together, clearly outweigh the harm to the Green Belt so as to amount to very special circumstances. That is principally a matter of planning judgment.
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- Neutral citation
- [2008] EWCA Civ 692
- Court
- Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
- Judgment date
- 23rd June 2008
- Judge
- The Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Carnwath and Lord Justice Wilson
- Case number
- C1/2008/0246
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What Wychavon Green Belt decided
Mr and Mrs Butler were living in a mobile home and touring caravan on Green Belt land at Upton Warren. Their residential use was inappropriate development. The Inspector refused permanent permission but granted temporary permission for five years.
He gave weight to the family’s personal circumstances, the lack of any available alternative site, unmet Gypsy and Traveller accommodation need and the expectation that the council’s emerging strategy would provide sites within the temporary period.
The High Court quashed the Inspector’s decision. The Court of Appeal reversed that judgment and restored the temporary permission.
Very special does not simply mean rare
Carnwath LJ rejected the High Court’s treatment of “very special” as the opposite of “commonplace”. Rarity can contribute to a factor being special, but it is not essential.
The word requires a qualitative judgment about planning weight. A consideration experienced by many people can still have great significance in a particular case.
There is no rigid two-stage Green Belt test
The court also rejected a rigid approach under which a decision-maker must first decide whether the individual considerations can separately be labelled “very special”, and only then carry out the balancing exercise.
The factors which make a case very special can be the same factors which clearly outweigh the Green Belt harm. The questions are linked. Ordinary considerations can also combine to produce very special circumstances.
Temporary permission changed the planning balance
The Inspector found that the factors were not enough to justify permanent permission. He reached a different conclusion on a temporary permission because the family’s immediate lack of an alternative site had to be viewed alongside an expected change in local site provision.
The limited duration mattered. The Court of Appeal held that the Inspector was entitled to make that planning judgment and that his conclusion was not perverse.
Gypsy and Traveller circumstances can carry substantial weight
The judgment recognised that Green Belt policy applies to Gypsies and Travellers in the same way as to everyone else. It also recognised that their particular accommodation circumstances, minority status, health, education and lack of lawful alternatives can be material to the balance.
That does not create a general right to permission in the Green Belt. Each case still depends on whether the identified considerations clearly outweigh the Green Belt and other harm.
For the current policy position, see our guide to Gypsy and Traveller sites and our overview of green belt, grey belt and brownfield land.
The policy wording in Wychavon is historical
The case applied PPG2 and Circular 01/2006. Those documents are no longer the current national planning policy framework. Wychavon remains important for the legal approach to very special circumstances, but current decisions must use the current NPPF and current Traveller policy.
Read the full Wychavon judgment
The full Court of Appeal judgment is held in the Planning Geek case law library. Gold Members can open the protected PDF below.
Wychavon Green Belt Case Law Page Updated: 10th September 2026