Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Transport [2026] EWCA Civ 697

[2026] EWCA Civ 697Case No CA-2025-003267
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
[2025] EWHC 3206 (Admin)
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
PLANNING COURT
Mrs Justice Lang
Venue Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LLDate 02/06/2026
Before
LORD JUSTICE BEAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT OF APPEAL, CIVIL DIVISIONLORD JUSTICE LEWISONLORD JUSTICE HOLGATE
Between
THE KING (on the application of Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise)Appellant
Estelle Dehon KC, Ruchi Parekh and Hannah Taylor (instructed by Leigh Day) for AppellantJames Strachan KC and Victoria Hutton (instructed by the Government Legal Department) for RespondentMichael Humphries KC and Rebecca Clutten (instructed by Broadfield Law UK LLP) for Interested PartyHearing Hearing date : 19 May 2026
Supplemental Judgment
[1]The Claimant applied to this court for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court (“UKSC”) from our judgment and order handed down on 21 May: [2026] EWCA Civ 648 . We refused that application. Our reasons are as follows.[2]We respectfully agree with the view of the UKSC, set out in Practice Direction 1 at paragraph 1.31, that on a proper interpretation of Lane v Esdaile [1891] AC 210 the UKSC has no jurisdiction to hear appeals from preliminary decisions of the Court of Appeal in respect of a case in which permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal is not granted. We note that the wording used is that permission is “not granted”, rather than that permission is “refused”; so that even if it were correct that this court had no jurisdiction to refuse permission to appeal having refused an extension of time, the result would still be the same.[3]In any event, if the UKSC does have jurisdiction, we are not persuaded that the grounds of appeal against the refusal to extend time raise an arguable point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered by the UKSC.