Michael O’Connor, the owner of 2ha of agricultural land in Hertfordshire, has won a High Court challenge to an enforcement notice issued by Broxbourne Borough Council.
The notice, which was endorsed by a DETR inspector, alleged unauthorised change of use of the land from agriculture to mixed agriculture and storage of materials unassociated with agriculture.
OConnor claimed that the disputed activity had been carried on at his Beaumont Road, Wormley, site for 10 years or more at the time the notice was issued in May 1998, and it was therefore too late for the council to take enforcement action over the alleged breach of planning control.
The site was acquired by OConnor in 1977, and a compound area, which is at the centre of the dispute, was enclosed in the early 1980s for storage of new and secondhand building materials in connection with O’Connor’s demolition and building business.
It was maintained that, with the exception of a few weeks in 1990, the compound had been continuously and consistently used for the storage of building materials for a period in excess of 10 years prior to the issue of the enforcement notice.
However, the council, which sought to stop OConnor using the site for other than agricultural purposes, disputed that he could claim 10 years of uninterrupted usage of the site for unauthorised storage on the basis that from July 1989 to June 1990 there was clear evidence that the site was being used solely in connection with agriculture.
Allowing OConnors challenge to the councils decision, Henriques J said that the council and the inspector had given insufficient reasons for rejecting OConnors evidence that the land had been in continuous mixed use for over 10 years prior to the issue of the enforcement notice. The judge directed the council to reconsider their decision on enforcement.
OConnor v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and another Queens Bench Division: Administrative Court (Henriques J) 30 October 2000.
Timothy Comyn (instructed by Merriman White, EC4 – tel. 020 7936 2050 – ref. SOC K363-4) appeared for the claimant; Timothy Mould (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the first defendant; the second defendants, Broxbourne Borough Council, did not appear and were not represented.
PLS News 1/11/00
