®Planning appeal decision
Land at Messengers Nursery, Nursery Road, Nazeing, EN9 2JF
Without planning permission: Change of use of the Land for a mixed purpose of storage of shelving and racking, retail sales of shelving and racking, stationing of portable buildings and containers Storage and parking of non-agricultural commercial vehicles, storage of non-agricultural commercial vehicles, storage of non-agricultural equipment and storage of vehicles. Erection of buildings for non-agricultural purposes
- Authority
- Epping Forest District Council
- Appeal type
- enforcement · Enforcement Notice
- Procedure
- Inquiry
- Development
- other · Change of use
- Inspector
- Higenbottam H
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- Whether, on the balance of probabilities, the dwelling now known as Orchard Leigh House has been occupied for a period of at least ten years in breach of condition 3 of planning permission EPF/345/83 and that the use is lawful
- Whether, on the balance of probabilities, the use of the land edged red (excluding the blue edged land) on Plan CC001 has been used for Class B8 of the Use Classes Order 1987 (as amended), for storage, and the stationing of a mobile home for residential use on the land cross hatched black on Plan CC001
What decided it
The imprecision of the enforcement notice as drafted (failing to properly identify the planning unit, uses and buildings) led to its quashing, while for the two certificate of lawfulness appeals the decisive factor was whether ten years' continuous unlawful use/occupation had been clearly and unambiguously evidenced, which was established for Orchard Leigh House but not for the yard, where an unexpired 1987 enforcement notice also barred a finding of lawfulness.
Judgments cited: Burdle & Williams v SSE & New Forest DC [1972] 1 WLR 1207
The main issues and the deciding factor are read from the published letter by Town Planner Pro; the letter itself is the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Research, not advice.