John Lund v The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government & Anor

Facts

Mr Lund, the claimant, sought to challenge under section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 a decision of the First Defendant, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, dated 23 December 2025. By that decision a Planning Inspector dismissed his appeal against the refusal by the Second Defendant, Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, of planning permission for 33 dwellings at Oddfellows Street, Cleckheaton. The main issue was highway safety. The site, an area of grassland, would be accessed via Oddfellows Street, part of which is unadopted and unlit. All parties agreed that the street was inadequate to serve the development and that a scheme of highway improvements was needed. The claimant proposed to secure the works through a Unilateral Undertaking covering the entire cost, and argued that the works could be delivered through the Highway Authority's private street works powers under sections 205 to 208 of the Highways Act 1980. He relied on British Railways Board v Secretary of State for the Environment and Hounslow LBC to say that landowner opposition and political reluctance were immaterial. The Inspector accepted that the powers existed but, having regard to landowner objections, the need for Member approval and the authority's own uncertainty, found no prospect of their use within the typical three-year period of a permission, and concluded that the development would harm highway safety. The claimant advanced four grounds.