Applications

Judicial Review

JUDICIAL REVIEW OF PLANNING DECISIONS
PART 54 CIVIL PROCEDURE RULES 1998

Interested Person’S Rights and General Information

If you are not happy with the action of the City Council in respect of a planning matter, you may be entitled to a Judicial Review of the City Council’S action.  Judicial Review is the process by which the Court determines whether there has been a failure of public duty by the City Council by a decision made, action or inaction of the City Council.

Only a person with sufficient interest in the decision or action of the public body will be entitled to bring a claim for Judicial Review. The procedure cannot be used to challenge the merits of a planning decision and can only be used to challenge a planning decision when all alternative remedies have been exhausted.

The grounds for judicial review are often referred to as:

I) illegality – where the decision maker had no power to make or went beyond the power available to them in making a decision

ii) procedural impropriety or unfairness – a failure in the procedure if the process followed is considered unfair or unjust

iii) irrationality – where a decision is so unreasonable that no sensible person could have reached that decision

Part 54 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, details the procedure for commencing a claim for Judicial Review in the High Court. The Pre-Action Protocol for Judicial Review provides that an applicant would first have to send a “letter before claim” to the City Council in the required format, setting out the grounds of dispute. The letter before action would also have to be sent to interested parties for information purposes.

Any person intending to commence a claim for Judicial Review is advised to seek independent legal advice promptly.