A developer whose plans for a leisure scheme on the Isle of Wight were blocked by the High Court in June have applied for leave to appeal.
The High Court held that Leisure Great Britain had failed to comply with planning conditions when they began work on the scheme.
Outline consent for the development was granted in 1993 by Isle of Wight Council, but it was subject to conditions. Those conditions included a requirement that no work should start until the site had been fenced and set a five-year deadline for the work to commence.
After work began in March 1998, the council claimed that the company had failed to comply with the conditions and that this had led to expiry of the deadline, thus rendering the development unlawful.
Refusing to grant a declaration that the permission was still valid, Keene J, in the High Court, said that while there were exceptions to the general principle that planning conditions had to be complied with, this case was not such an exception.
The conditions had required the developer to take steps that it had not taken. The work had begun in breach of planning conditions, and, in those circumstances, it could not be regarded as the lawful start of the development. This meant that the five-year deadline had expired.
PLS News 26/8/99
