Land at 1A High Street, Graveley, Hitchen, Hertfordshire, SG4 7LE

Planning appeal 3362386 at Land at 1A High Street, Graveley, Hitchen, Hertfordshire, SG4 7LE (North Hertfordshire District Council) was decided (quashed on legal grounds) on 4 July 2025 by Inspector Douglas L, following a hearing. The main issue, as the Inspector framed it: Whether the alleged breach of planning control has occurred as a matter of fact, in particular whether the site is or has been a single planning unit in a mixed use as alleged by the notice, or whether it comprises or comprised two or more planning units in different uses.

Without planning permission, the material change of use to a mixed use of the land for Metal Recycling, Open Commercial Storage and for the Sale and Display of Motor Vehicles and associated operational development

Authority: North Hertfordshire District Council
Appeal type: enforcement · Enforcement Notice
Procedure: Hearing
Development: employment-industrial · Change of use
Inspector: Douglas L
Postcode: SG4 7LE

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

Whether the alleged breach of planning control has occurred as a matter of fact, in particular whether the site is or has been a single planning unit in a mixed use as alleged by the notice, or whether it comprises or comprised two or more planning units in different uses

What decided it

The evidence showed the site comprised at least three physically separate and functionally distinct planning units in different, unrelated uses, rather than the single mixed use alleged in the notice, so the alleged breach had not occurred as a matter of fact.

What the Inspector cited

Judgments: Burdle & Williams v SSE & New Forest DC [1972] 1 WLR 1207

How the Inspector dealt with each one is set out in the app, in order: the development plan, national policy, housing land supply, other considerations and the planning balance, beside the letter.

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The decision letter

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More decisions in North Hertfordshire

The authority’s record since 2016 · every decision in 2025

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The main issues, what decided it, the planning balance and the policies and judgments listed as cited are read from the published letter by Town Planner Pro and are our summary, not the Inspector’s words; the letter itself is the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Research, not advice.