No reset and no second chances.The opportunity to have the planning merits of your scheme considered by a Planning Inspector should never be turned down lightly.
Can You Submit a New Planning Application After an Enforcement Appeal Fails?
It should never be assumed that, if an enforcement notice is upheld on appeal, you will get a second chance to have your development approved.
Connors v Bromley LBC: What Happened?
The recent case of The King (on the application of Thomas Connors) v Bromley LBC shows that even a seismic shift in the planning landscape, being the introduction through national policy of the concept of Grey Belt, is necessarily sufficient to prevent the planning authority from exercising its power under section 70C to simply return your planning application unopened and unconsidered.
Does Grey Belt Policy Change the Outcome of Enforcement Cases?
In Connors, the argument made by the Claimant (landowner) was that the shift from Green Belt to Grey Belt was of such importance and materiality to the question of whether planning permission might now (post enforcement) be granted that it was unlawful for the planning authority to exercise the s70C power regardless of those undoubted (in the Claimant’s submission) planning merits. The court was not persuaded. Most particularly the court was not persuaded on the facts of this particular case. Essentially the Claimant had done nothing to remedy the breach identified in the enforcement notice in terms of restoration of the site. There had been, in the words of the court, no reset, no wiping the slate clean.
Key Takeaways for Landowners and Developers
Although the court didn’t say that such a reset would have been determinative of the lawfulness of the planning authority’s actions, it did opine that it could have been different had the Claimant been applying from the position of having remediated the site (in accordance with the requirements of the enforcement notice); a fresh application on a fresh site against a fresh policy landscape.
Need Advice on Planning Appeals or Enforcement?
Our team of planning solicitors regularly advise on planning applications, appeals and enforcement. If you’d like to speak to one of them, please contact us via [email protected]