Macarthur v. Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

Petitioners challenged the local council’s denial of planning applications for the construction of two wind farms on the grounds that the harm from visual and character impacts outweighed the proposals’ modest contribution to climate change mitigation. The Inspector heard the appeals jointly and overturned the council’s decisions. Taking into account recently adopted policy schemes that encouraged renewable energy, especially to address climate change, the Inspector found that the benefits substantially outweighed visual, character, and sound impacts. Informal citizen groups challenged the Inspector’s decisions in the High Court of Justice alleging that the decisions were based on material error of fact and the Inspector’s reasoning was inadequate. The court rejected both arguments and upheld the Inspectors approval of the wind farm.