Sanders & Anor v First Secretary Of State, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, May 27, 2004, [2004] EWHC 1194 (Admin)

Extract

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Sanders & Anor v First Secretary Of State, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, May 27, 2004, [2004] EWHC 1194 (Admin)

Case No: CO/6877/2003

Neutral Citation Number: [2004] EWHC 1194 (Admin)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION

ADMINISTRATIVE COURT

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand,

London, WC2A 2LL

Thursday 27 May 2004

Before :

THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE RICHARDS

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Between :

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(Transcript of the Handed Down Judgment of

Smith Bernal Wordwave Limited, 190 Fleet Street

London EC4A 2AG

Tel No: 020 7421 4040, Fax No: 020 7831 8838

Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)

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Mr Ian Dove QC and Mr Satnam Choongh (instructed by Hewitsons Solicitors) for the Appellants

Mr John Litton (instructed by The Treasury Solicitor) for The First Secretary of State

Mr Peter Harrison (instructed by Ms Colleen O'Boyle) for Epping Forest District Council

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Judgment

Mr Justice Richards :

1. The appellants own land at Galley Hill Yard, Galley Hill Road, Waltham Abbey in Essex. The site is the subject of an enforcement notice issued on 15 April 2003 by Epping Forest District Council and upheld on appeal, in a decision dated 27 November 2003, by an inspector appointed by the First Secretary of State. The appellants seek to appeal under s.289 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 against the inspector's decision. The case has been listed as a hearing of the application for permission to appeal, with the hearing of the substantive appeal to follow immediately if permission is granted. This means that I have had the benefit of full argument on the issues.

Statutory framework

2. Planning permission is required for the carrying out of development: s.57(1) of the 1990 Act. The making of a material change in the use of land is development: s.55(1). Carrying out development without the required planning permission constitutes a breach of planning control: s.171A(1). Where it appears to a local planning authority that there has been a breach of planning control and that it is expedient to issue an enforcement notice the authority may do so: s.172(1). The issue of an enforcement notice constitutes the taking of enforcement action: s.171A(2). The notice must state the matters which appear to the authority to constitute the breach of planning control: s.173(1). The notice complies with this requirement if it enables the person on whom it is served to know what those matters are: s.173(2). The notice must specify the activities which the authority requires to cease in order to achieve, wholly or partly, the remedying of the breach: s.173(3)-(4).

3. Provision is made under s.171B (which was inserted into the 1990 Act by s.4 of the Planning and Compensation Act 1991) for various limitation periods in respect of enforcement notices. In the case of building works, the period is four years from substantial completion of the works: s.171B(1). Other forms of development, including the making of a material change in the use of land, are covered by s.171B(3) which reads:

``In the case of any other breach of planning control, no enforcement action may be taken after the end of the period of ten years beginning with the date of the breach....

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