A judge is being asked to rule on the extent to which permitted development rights (PDRs) can be relied on to carry out basement developments. The eventual decision could make it easier for such subterranean work to be carried out without the need for planning permission.
Camden Council is facing a challenge which the claimant’s counsel, Martin Westgate QC, says raises “fundamental questions” about the scope of PDRs when it comes to subterranean development, which are of general importance across the country, but particularly in central London “given the longstanding and increasing pressure for space”.
It is the first case to raise the question of whether a residential basement extension is or can be a PDR under Class A of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.
Michael Eatherley, of 26 Quadrant Grove, London NW5 is seeking to have quashed the council’s decision to grant a lawful development certificate in respect of his neighbour James Ireland’s plans to excavate a single-storey basement next door under number 24.
The council took the view that the proposal is within the PDR granted by Schedule 2, Part 1, Class A of the 2015 Order.
However, Eatherley says that the development will involve a substantial engineering operation, which does not fall within the Class A PDR.
He argues that the council misdirected itself before concluding that these engineering works were not a “separate activity of substance”, and that the decision was irrational.
The council maintains that the challenge is “unsustainable” and that it is plain from the 2015 Order that excavation of a single-storey basement under the footprint of a dwellinghouse is lawful. Lawyers representing Ireland also argue that the decision should be upheld.
