In determining an appeal against an enforcement notice directed at the conversion of a terrace house in southeast London to two flats (DCS Number 400-024-950), an inspector has explained how a notice might constitute a nullity.
Monthly Archives: February 2020
Will it stand or will it fall?
Appellants who were hoping to gain permission for an additional residential caravan on their pitch in north Yorkshire will no doubt be interested in the fate of the Finney judgment, reported in A conflict situation, in the Supreme Court.
A poisoned chalice?
Is pre-application advice sometimes a poisoned chalice? A case in point concerns a recent appeal relating to a proposal for a new dwelling to the rear of an existing house in Derbyshire (DCS Number 400-025-015). In this case the inspector awarded costs against the council after she found the pre-application advice which had been given to be misleading.
A place for everything
….and everything in its place.
An inspector has decided that a digital advertisement to replace a paper and paste advertisement would be out of place in suburban Bristol (DCS Number 400-024-682).
As the pigeon flies
In an appeal case in which the potential threat to residential amenity came from an airborne source the inspector took the topography of the land into account in coming to her decision. In this case (DCS Number 400-024-952) a south Wales householder was denied permission to retain a pigeon loft in his rear garden.
Oversimplification
A light touch is one thing but you can go too far.
In dealing with an appeal relating to a prior approval application for a rear extension to a house in southeast London under Part 1, Class A of the GPDO (DCS Number 400-024-852) an inspector pointed out that the plans do not need to be drawn to scale.
A light touch approach
The change of use of a B1(c) light industrial building in southeast London used for the manufacture of event sets to C3 residential under Schedule 2, Part 3, Class PA of the GPDO has been deemed to be permitted development by an inspector notwithstanding intervening uses since the relevant date (DCS Number 200-009-116).
Anytime soon
In Shakespeare’s day ‘presently’ only meant in the present, now. Over a few centuries the procrastinators amongst us have managed to stretch the meaning of the word such that it can also mean in the near future, soonish. Likewise, ‘immediately’ might not mean exactly the same thing to one person as it does to another. Against this background you can see the inspector’s problem with an enforcement notice which required the use of a site in Gloucestershire as a storage yard to cease ‘immediately’ (DCS Number 400-024-830). He declared the notice a nullity and without legal effect.
News from PlanningResource
- City council green-lights central Oxford’s ‘first new college of the 21st century’ August 17, 2020Permission has been granted for three existing university buildings to be converted to form Oxford’s 39th college within the city’s central conservation area.
- How the planning white paper would change ... planning enforcement August 17, 2020A promise to "review and strengthen" council's enforcement powers and sanctions if new development does not meet the required design and environmental standards, including consideration of higher fines, features in the government's new planning white paper.
- 'Affordability row over plans for 700-home brownfield development' August 17, 2020A dispute over plans for 700 homes on a former gasworks site in Brighton leads our round-up of today's newspapers and news websites.
- Five authorites to pilot new spatial nature recovery strategies August 17, 2020Five local authorities are to trial the creation of new "local nature recovery strategies" (LNRS) which are intended to "support better spatial planning for nature", the government has announced.
- Thurrock Council secures injunction to block illegal development on 40-hectare green belt site August 17, 2020An Essex local authority has secured an interim High Court injunction to prevent unauthorised works on a 40-hectare green belt site - the latest in a series of court interventions by the council to restrict illegal works taking place at the location.
- High Court grants council permission to challenge inspector's green belt traveller site permission August 14, 2020The High Court has allowed a council to pursue a legal challenge to a planning inspector's decision to block its attempts to shut down a traveller encampment in the Merseyside green belt.
- Essex council gains interim injunction to prevent caravan park or travellers' camp on site August 14, 2020Brentwood Borough Council in Essex has taken preemptive High Court action to block development of land that it fears could become an unauthorised caravan park or traveller site.
- MPs 'set to frustrate mobile phone planning reforms over Huawei concerns' August 14, 2020News that some MPs concerned about the influence of Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei will "frustrate" the government's proposed planning changes around mobile phone infrastructure features in today's newspaper round-up.
- CIL Watch: Five ways the proposed changes to the planning system will affect CIL August 14, 2020Plans to scrap the community infrastructure levy (CIL) and create a new levy on development are among the far-reaching changes to the developer contributions system that were revealed in the new Planning White Paper. Here are five key changes.
- The likely risks and rewards of the proposed zonal plan system August 14, 2020Radical proposed changes to local plans, which would see them zone land into three development categories, is likely to mean more work for under-resourced council planning teams and could limit local authority control, some observers suggest. However, developers should welcome the greater certainty provided by the new system.