Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government: CA 6 Feb 2013

The Council sought permission to appeal against the setting aside of two enforcement notices, leave having been refused by the Administrative court. The court now considered whether it had jusridiction, and whether the rule in Lane v Esdaile was to be reconsidered.
Held: The appeal failed. The rule in Lane v Esdaile should not be overturned. Recent decisions had done more in fact to confirm the rule, with only very limited exceptions, and ‘All of these authorities emphasise the distinction between the High Court’s judicial review powers and its powers on a statutory appeal. They also emphasise the need for decisions by lower courts and tribunals not to be ‘immune from scrutiny in the higher courts’. Mr Coppel rightly submits that in substance, an appellant on a point of law under section 289 will be raising the kind of arguments that he would be able to raise in judicial review proceedings. But the fact remains that Parliament has chosen to provide a statutory appeal process for challenges to enforcement notices on the very comprehensive grounds set out in section 174. It has not rendered Inspectors’ decisions under section 174 immune from scrutiny in the higher courts; but it has deliberately excluded a challenge to the validity of an enforcement notice on the grounds set out in section 174 by way of judicial review.’
Pill, Sullivan, Tomlinon LJJ
[2013] EWCA Civ 370
Bailii
Town and Country Planning Act 1990
England and Wales
Citing:
CitedLane v Esdaile HL 5-May-1891
The court considered the extent of the House’s jurisdiction as an appellate court. Section 3 of the 1876 Act provided that an appeal should lie to the House of Lords from ‘any order or judgment of . . Her Majesty’s Court of Appeal in England’. The . .
CitedHuggett v Secretary of State for the Environment Etc; Wendy Fair Markets Ltd v Same; Bello v Etc CA 1-Mar-1995
There is no power for Court of Appeal itself to give leave to appeal after High Court’s refusal of leave on an enforcement notice. The court rejected the applicant’s submission that a High Court judge’s decision refusing permission to appeal under . .
CitedIn re Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890, Ex parte Stevenson CA 1892
A party had applied to a judge for what in effect amounted to leave to appeal and had been refused.
Held: Wherever power is given to a legal authority to grant or refuse leave to appeal, the decision of that authority is, from the very nature . .
CitedBland v Chief Supplementary Benefit Officer SSCS 1-Dec-1982
Application for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal against a ruling of the Social Security Commissioner. The tibunal was asked if the Court of Appeal any jurisdiction to give leave to appeal from the refusal of a Social Security Commissioner to . .
CitedGeogas SA v Trammo Gas Ltd (The Baleares) CA 26-Nov-1990
Judge Wrong to Accept Appeal of Fact
The charterers had sought to appeal the arbitrators’ findings on foreseeability and remoteness. The judge had set aside the arbitration award. Though he certified that a point of law existed which was of general public importance, he had refused . .
CitedYoung v The Bristol Aeroplane Co Ltd CA 28-Jul-1944
Court of Appeal must follow Own Decisions
The claimant was injured and received compensation. He then sought to recover again, alleging breach of statutory duty by his employers.
Held: The Court of Appeal was in general bound to follow its own previous decisions. The court considered . .
CitedRickards v Rickards CA 20-Jun-1989
What Lane v. Esdaile decided, and all that it decided, was that where it is provided that an appeal shall lie by leave of a particular court or courts, neither the grant nor refusal of leave is an appealable decision. The Court of Appeal could . .
CitedGeogas SA v Trammo Gas Ltd (The Baleares) HL 1991
Charterers had appealed an arbitration award. The judge set it aside. The CA gave leave and allowed the appeal saying that as a question of mixed fact and law sought leave to appeal against an arbitration award.
Held: The House had no . .
CitedCart v The Upper Tribunal SC 21-Jun-2011
Limitations to Judicial Reviw of Upper Tribunal
Three claimants sought to challenge decisions of various Upper Tribunals by way of judicial review. In each case the request for judicial review had been first refused on the basis that having been explicitly designated as higher courts, the proper . .
CitedCGU International Insurance Plc and others v Astrazeneca Insurance Co Ltd. CA 16-Oct-2006
Whilst the court of appeal did have a residual discretion to review a refusal by a judge of a grant of leave to appeal against an arbitration based upon an allegation of unfairness such as should undermine the fairness of the decision, that . .
CitedIn re Poh HL 1983
The applicant had unsuccessfully applied to the Divisional Court for leave to apply for judicial review and renewed his application, equally unsuccessfully, to the Court of Appeal. He then petitioned for leave to appeal to the House of Lords.
CitedKemper Reinsurance Company v The Minister of Finance and others PC 5-May-1998
(Bermuda) An appeal Court did have jurisdiction to hear an appeal against the discharge of leave to apply for certiorari order, since this was outside scope of the rule in Lane v Esdaille.
Lord Hoffmann said: ‘Nevertheless, the limited nature . .
CitedPrashar v Secretary of State For Environment, Transport and Regions CA 2-Feb-2001
The court had before it three applications for leave to appeal. Each raised the problem of whether, where a High Court judge has considered an application for permission to appeal under section 289 of the 1990 Act, an appeal can be lodged against . .
CitedLe Compte, Van Leuven And De Meyere v Belgium ECHR 23-Jun-1981
The applicants were suspended from practising medicine for three months by the Provincial Council of the Ordre des medecins. They appealed unsuccessfully to the Appeal Council and again unsuccessfully to the Court de Cassation. Dr Le Compte . .
CitedBryan v The United Kingdom ECHR 22-Nov-1995
Bryan was a farmer at Warrington in Cheshire. He built two brick buildings on land in a conservation area without planning permission and the planning authority served an enforcement notice for their demolition. He appealed on grounds (a) (that . .
CitedRegina (Holding and Barnes plc) v Secretary of State for Environment Transport and the Regions; Regina (Alconbury Developments Ltd and Others) v Same and Others HL 9-May-2001
Power to call in is administrative in nature
The powers of the Secretary of State to call in a planning application for his decision, and certain other planning powers, were essentially an administrative power, and not a judicial one, and therefore it was not a breach of the applicants’ rights . .
CitedNorth Range Shipping Ltd v Seatrans Shipping Corporation CA 14-Mar-2002
The parties had been involved in an arbitration. The claimant sought leave to appeal. The judge refused to give leave, but did not say exactly why.
Held: Human Rights law required a right of appeal. That right could only be exercised properly . .
CitedRegina v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham And Others, ex parte Burkett and Another HL 23-May-2002
The applicant sought judicial review of the respondent’s grant of planning permission for a development which would affect her. The authority objected that the application was made after three months after their decision, and so leave should not be . .
CitedSeal v United Kingdom ECHR 7-Dec-2010
The court considered a procedural filter which prevented the bringing of a claim relating to the exercise of powers under the 1983 Act without the leave of the court.
Held: ‘The Court notes at the outset that the Applicant pursued his . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 July 2021; Ref: scu.472962