A Hastings company is challenging an inspector’s decision to back enforcement action brought by the local planning authority over the allegedly unlawful use of its property.
East Sussex County Council claimed that MDJ Light Bros (SP) Ltd was unlawfully using Woodlands Farm, in Westfield Lane, Hastings, as a waste-transfer station, skip-hire business and depot for refuse-collection vehicles.
The company, however, contends that the site had been used as a waste station since 1977, almost 20 years before it took control of the farm in 1996, and that, far from being used as a “depot” for the operation of refuse-collection vehicles, it has been used to store 14 vehicles only while maintenance work was being carried out.
It argues that the inspector’s decision, that it was responsible for a material change of use of the land without permission, was based upon a number of errors in law and should be quashed.
MDJ Light Bros (SP) Ltd v First Secretary of State and another Queen’s Bench Division (Sullivan J) 12 May 2003.
References: PLS News 12/5/03
