(130)  Human rights and planning law

The decision of the Lord Ordinary in County Properties Ltd v The Scottish Ministers 2000 SLT 965 (below, No 89) was reversed by an Extra Division on 16 August 2001 (2001 GWD 26-1068). The court took into account the criticisms of the Lord Ordinary’s reasoning made by the House of Lords in the Alconbury case ([2001] 2 WLR 1389, see below No 109). It accepted that in the Alconbury case the House of Lords had considered as a matter of principle whether the planning or other statutory procedures in question entailed an incompatibility with Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights. While the Reporter to a planning inquiry on his own might not be an independent and impartial tribunal for the purposes of Article 6(1) , the totality of planning procedures, including the powers of the court to deal with genuinely justiciable issues arising in what were otherwise administrative procedures were sufficient to e nsure compatibility.