Land South of Darby Drive, Spinney Lane, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 9TB

Without planning permission, the unauthorised change of use from vehicle storage to a mixed use of vehicle storage, vehicle breaking yard and vehicle recovery business within the last 10 years

Authority: Welwyn Hatfield Council
Appeal type: enforcement · Enforcement Notice
Procedure: Inquiry
Development: employment-industrial · Change of use
Inspector: Harbottle M

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

Whether the matters alleged in the notice (the change of use to a mixed use of vehicle storage, vehicle breaking yard and vehicle recovery business) have occurred as a matter of fact (ground (b))

What decided it

The Inspector found that the actual unauthorised activity on site (storage and sale of vehicle parts) was of a materially different character from the mixed use of vehicle storage, vehicle breaking yard and vehicle recovery business alleged in the notice, so the alleged breach had not occurred as a matter of fact.

Read the decision letter on the Inspectorate’s site

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.

Town Planner Pro

What an account adds

Draw a red line around your site and the appraisal follows.
- Heritage. Listed buildings by grade and distance, conservation areas, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, heritage at risk.
- Landscape and environment. Green belt, national parks and national landscapes, SSSIs, ancient woodland, SPA, SAC and Ramsar sites, nutrient catchments.
- Flooding. Flood zones 2 and 3, surface water, and both again with climate change.
- Transport. The 800 metre station catchment and service frequency, bus stops with their weekday frequency, the cycle network, and the Framework’s transport tests measured for the site.
Then the development plan position, the housing land supply as an Inspector last accepted it, and every appeal decided around the site with its letter.
Every English appeal since 2016, with the letter behind it wherever the Inspectorate published one. Searched by meaning as well as by words, with the key case law counted live across the letters.
Casework that chases the deadlines. Applications, appeals and conditions with their statutory dates.
The judgement stays yours. The tool gathers the material and dates it.

Join the waiting list

In the app this decision sits on the map beside every other appeal around it, with the full reasoning summary, the letter held on file, and the case law it applies.