Land at Southport And Birkdale Sports Club, Trafalgar Road, Birkdale, PR8 2HF

Authority: Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
Appeal type: enforcement · Enforcement Notice
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: leisure-sport · Change of use
Inspector: Whalley J

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

Whether the material change of use of the land to a mixed use as a sports club and the operation of a catering company including the siting of six storage containers constitutes a breach of planning control
Whether the alleged breach has become immune from enforcement action by the passage of time
Whether planning permission should be granted for the mixed use on its merits
Whether the enforcement notice is properly formulated and whether its requirements are reasonable

What decided it

The catering business use was not ancillary to the sports club but operated as a separate commercial enterprise for external clients, constituting a material change of use that conflicted with open space protection policy and caused unacceptable noise impacts on neighbouring residential amenity.

Plan policies cited: Policy NH5 Protection of Open Space and Countryside Recreation Areas, Policy EQ2, Policy EQ4 Pollution and Hazards

Read the decision letter on the Inspectorate’s site

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What an account adds

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