Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Thomas v Cheltenham BC: EMF and medical implants can be material in GPDO Part 16 telecoms prior approval; Court of Appeal clarifies NPPF discretion and appellate jurisdiction (England and Wales)

Published on: 31 March 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Planning expert

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Thomas v Cheltenham Borough Council [2025] EWCA Civ 259 What are the practical implications of this case?

This judgment will interest practitioners dealing with prior approval applications for electronic communication developments, and, more generally, those pursuing public law challenges about material considerations and appeals against High Court decisions. It reviews the Supreme Court's guidance in Friends of the Earth v Secretary of State for Transport [2021] UKSC 52 on three types of information that can amount to a material consideration. These include: information that legislation or policy, either expressly or by necessary implication, obliges the decision-maker to take into account or to ignore; and information that the decision-maker is entitled to consider where, in their own judgement and discretion, they regard it as appropriate. The judgment underlines that, within this third class, a decision-maker may choose not to refer to something others might regard as pertinent; yet, unless it was so plainly relevant that no rational decision-maker could have left it out of account, the omission to have regard to it will not undermine the legality of the decision in public law contexts...

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