Compulsory purchase of land for highway improvement — Improvement in connection with adjoining development area — Ransom value — Whether rule (3) applies — Whether rule applies where statutory stopping-up powers applies to existing lane and not land acquired — Appeal by acquiring authority dismissed
The respondent claimants were the owners of a strip of agricultural land adjoining Thorley Lane, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire. The land was acquired under a compulsory purchase order and possession was taken in 1978 for the realignment and improvement of Thorley Lane. A large development lay to the north of the subject land for which planning permission had been granted but no condition was attached requiring the improvement of Thorley Lane. However, in 1973 the county council decided that no major access on to the land would be allowed until Thorley Lane had been improved.
The county council’s appeal from the award of the Lands Tribunal was allowed in part and the award remitted to the tribunal to identify the scheme for the purposes of the Pointe Gourde principle (see [1989] 2 EGLR 18; [1989] 43 EG 182). However, the Court of Appeal held that the Land Compensation Act 1961, section 5, rule (3), did not apply to disregard any enhancement in value. The county council appealed on this issue contending that the subject land could only be used for highway purposes if a stopping-up order was made under sections 212 and 219 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 (sections 249 and 255 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) in respect of the existing lane; it was accepted that no part of the lane that could be affected by a stopping-up order lies within land acquired from the claimants.
Held The appeal was dismissed.
The language of rule (3) is plain; the special suitability or adaptability of the land for any purpose is directed to be left out of account if that purpose is a purpose to which it could be applied only in pursuance of statutory powers. Statutory powers not related to the use of the land acquired cannot form a basis for the application of this part of rule (3). Therefore statutory powers to order the stopping-up of a highway on land which is not part of the land being acquired could not form the basis of the application of this part of the rule to the land acquired.
Cedar Rapids Manufacturing & Power Co v Lacoste [1914]
AC 569 considered.
Michael Rich QC and John Howell (instructed by the solicitor to Hertfordshire County Council) appeared for the appellants; and Matthew Horton QC and Sebastian Head (instructed by Berwin Leighton) appeared for the respondents.