The question of the relevant dates governing determination of the value of land set aside for compulsory purchase is to be examined.
Joint appeals are pending in the House of Lords in the cases of Newell and others v Secretary of State for the Environment and Fletcher Estates (Harlescott) Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment.
The challenges, which are expected to come before the law lords later in the current legal term, centre on compulsory purchase orders in respect of two parcels of land at Sundorne, Shrewsbury, that were required for construction of the A49 Shrewsbury bypass.
The proposal to acquire the land was made in January 1986, and, towards the end of 1992, the landowners applied for certificates of appropriate alternative development in order to ascertain the development value of the land for the acquisition proposal.
The local council certified that permission would have been granted, in one case, for residential development and, in the other, for residential and industrial development.
Since then, however, a dispute has arisen over the relevant dates to be used in determining the value of such land and alternative development values. The Secretary of State for Transport, who issued the orders, appealed to the Environment Secretary, who substituted certificates to the effect that planning consent would not have been granted for any development other than the bypass.
The landowners successfully challenged this in the High Court, but the Court of Appeal held that, when considering the grant of a certificate, the land was to be valued as at the date of the publication of notice of the compulsory purchase order. It allowed an appeal by the Environment Secretary, and it is that decision that is being challenged in the Lords.
PLS News 11/10/99
