Planning permission for single-storey extension — Breach of control by erection of two storeys — Appeal against enforcement notice — Inspector dismissing appeal but varying enforcement notice — Inconsistency between notice and decision letter
In November 1987 Bromley London Borough Council, as the local planning authority, issued an enforcement notice in respect of an alleged breach of planning control in Beckenham, Kent. The notice, concerning a rear extension, required the extension to be reduced to the single storey for which planning permission had been granted on appeal.
In dismissing the owner’s appeal against the enforcement notice, the inspector varied the notice by requiring that all works above the first floor be removed. The local planning authority appealed against that decision contending: (1) there was an inconsistency between the original planning permission for a single storey and the inspector’s requirement that works above the first floor be removed; (2) there were no controls in the amended enforcement notice on the form of the roof of the extension, only controls on the materials; and (3) the parties had had no opportunity to make representations on the shape and design of the roof.
Held The appeal was allowed; the inspector’s decision letter was quashed in so far as it granted planning permission, and the letter was remitted to the Secretary of State for the Environment for a rehearing and redetermination of the variations to the enforcement notice. The motion was amended to include an appeal under section 246 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 as an application under section 245 was probably not appropriate to challenge a varied enforcement notice.
(1) The decision letter was capable of an ambiguity and should be reconsidered. (2) and (3) Although the inspector had power to impose requirements as to the roof material, it was an error of law to canvass the question of a variation to the roof of the extension. The original appeal was by written representations and the parties should have an opportunity to make further representations.
Gill v Secretary of State for the Environment
[1985] JPL 710 referred to.
Toby Davey (instructed by the solicitor to Bromley London Borough Council) appeared for the applicants; Alun Alesbury (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the first respondent, the Secretary of State for the Environment; and Meyric Lewis (instructed by Michael Stone & Co) appeared for the second respondent.
