A Chorleywood farmer has gone to the High Court to challenge enforcement notices requiring him to remove two areas of hard standing from his land.
Three Rivers District Council issued the notices in August 1999 after farmer Robin Taylor laid two areas of hard standing, measuring 1500m by 2790m and placed 250m apart, on his land at High Ash Farm, Bullsland Lane, Chorleywood, for use as bases for feeding sheep.
The council objected to the feeding stations, and to the laying of hardcore on a track between them, due to concerns about the effect of the development on the area, which is designated as green belt and forms part of the Colne Valley, where enhancement of landscape is a priority. A DETR inspector upheld that view on an appeal by Taylor in March 2000.
Now Taylor is bringing a further challenge, claiming that the whole of the development is permitted by the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order. He claims that the hard standing and the track are necessary to prevent the land from becoming waterlogged, and that, if he is forced to remove them, the farm will become inoperable.
Mary Macpherson, counsel for Taylor, argued before Jackson J yesterday that the inspector had failed to have regard to her own finding that all the waste material was used, or was intended for use, in connection with the agricultural use of the land.
However, Michael Gibbon, counsel for the DETR, argued that the inspector had been entitled to find that the hardcore deposit was not reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture on the farm.
The hearing continues.
Taylor v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions Queens Bench Division: Administrative Court (Jackson J) 23 November 2000
Mary Macpherson (instructed by Malcolm C Brown Solicitors, of Slough) appeared for the claimant; Michael Gibbon (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the defendant.
PLS News 24/11/00
