Household waste site in North Norfolk’s National Landscape
The Court of Appeal has upheld the grant of planning permission for a new household waste and recycling centre in the National Landscape of north Norfolk – more than 10 years after the existing site was found to be no longer fit for purpose.
This morning, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in R (Hilltop Experiences Ltd) v Norfolk County Council [2026] EWCA Civ 541 and rejected a challenge to a decision of Norfolk County Council to grant planning permission for the development of a replacement household waste recycling centre (HWRC) near Sheringham in Norfolk.
The site in question lies immediately to the north of the existing HWRC, on the opposite site of the road giving access to the Appellant’s outdoor education business. Both sites are located in the Norfolk Coast National Landscape.
The claim for judicial review was brought on six grounds, including a failure to consider alternative sites for the development outside the National Landscape, and breach of the public sector equality duty, and it was dismissed on all grounds by Mrs Justice Lieven in June 2025.
The main question on appeal was whether the Council had been required to take into account a site outside the National Landscape (a working quarry) which had been identified in 2019 during a site selection process but discounted when the owner “did not engage”. It was argued by the appellant that the existence of that quarry as a potential alternative was a mandatory material consideration and that the advice given to the Council was materially misleading since it failed to recognise that the owner of the quarry had engaged with the site selection process.
It was admitted that the Council had not taken the quarry site into account.
The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal, essentially because the officers’ report made it clear that officers could not be sure that no alternative, policy-compliant site existed outside the National Landscape. It was on that understanding that the application had been recommended for approval despite its being a departure from the development plan.
The judgment provides a helpful re-statement of when consideration of alternative sites or schemes to that for which planning permission is sought becomes a mandatory material consideration which must be taken into account. As Dove LJ put it at §24 “If the challenge is based upon the failure to have regard to alternative sites it will be necessary to find a legal basis for the conclusion that the decision-maker was compelled (rather than merely empowered) to take alternative sites into account…. It is necessary to show that the question of alternative sites was a consideration which the statute expressly or impliedly (because it was obviously material) required to be taken into account as a matter of legal obligation.”
It also clears the way for a much-needed new HWRC to be brought forward, almost 11 years after the existing HWRC was found to be no longer fit for purpose.
Harriet Townsend KC and Matt Lewin represented Norfolk County Council, instructed by Jodie Cunnington-Brock and Will Elliot at nplaw.
