The long-disputed development of an equestrian centre in the North Yorkshire green belt has been successfully challenged for a second time.
Samuel Smith Old Brewery and Oxon Farms, which own farmland and properties in the green belt area surrounding Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, have been awarded a High Court order, quashing Selby District Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the erection of a building for use in connection with an equestrian centre on land at Hazelwood, South Approach, Great North Road, Stutton.
The owners argued that the decision to allow the development would be damaging to their land and would also establish a significantly adverse precedent as to the acceptability of further equestrian-related development in a green-belt area. In particular, they challenged the local authority’s findings that “very special circumstances” existed to allow the scheme to go ahead.
Deputy Judge Robert Henderson QC has ruled that if a desire for planning consent in order to expand an applicant’s business was to be regarded as a “very special circumstance” that justified green-belt development, the policy of green-belt protection would be undermined.
R (on the application of Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster)) v Selby District Council Queen’s Bench Division (Deputy Judge Robert Henderson QC) 16 April 2003.
References: PLS News 22/4/03
