Certain English planning judicial reviews have a shorter deadline than the ordinary judicial-review longstop.

The Civil Procedure Rules require claims concerning specified planning decisions to be filed within six weeks of the grounds arising. The precise rule and trigger must be checked for the decision being challenged.

Do not substitute the general three-month judicial-review period.

The Pre-Action Protocol expressly notes the shorter six-week planning period.

The deadline is for filing the claim, not merely sending a letter before claim.

Pre-action correspondence does not stop time running.

Different statutory challenges can have their own six-week provisions.

Appeal decisions and other planning decisions may use specialist statutory routes rather than ordinary judicial review. A solicitor should identify the correct route before filing.

Act on the date of the formal decision.

Do not calculate time from when a campaign first noticed the decision on social media or from a later public meeting unless the statute or rule actually uses that event.

Sources and further information

Civil Procedure Rules - Pre-Action Protocol for Judicial Review

GOV.UK - Planning appeals procedural guide: complaints and challenges

Last checked: 26 September 2026

The Planning Act 2008 contains a specific legal-challenge framework.

Section 118 provides that proceedings questioning an order granting development consent must be brought by judicial review and filed within the statutory six-week period.

For a granted DCO, the trigger is tied to publication.

The current section 118 text calculates the period from the day after publication of the order or, if later, the statement of reasons.

The framework also covers other specified NSIP decisions and omissions.

Section 118 contains separate provisions for refusal, non-acceptance, corrections, changes or revocation and other matters connected with an application.

Government guidance recommends immediate independent legal advice.

The July 2026 decision-making guidance also identifies the Judicial Review Pre-Action Protocol.

The six-week period is not an additional consultation period.

A challenger must identify a legal ground. Repeating examination submissions or collecting further objections does not convert a merits disagreement into a judicial-review ground.

Sources and further information

Planning Act 2008 - section 118 legal challenges

GOV.UK - Planning Act 2008: decision-making stage and legal challenges

Civil Procedure Rules - Pre-Action Protocol for Judicial Review

Last checked: 26 September 2026