The High Court has overturned a planning inspectors decision that a couple should reduce the size of the garage at their luxury home, in the Buckinghamshire green belt, in return for consent to extend the main property.
Ruling that the decision was unreasonable, Deputy Judge Michael Rich QC allowed a challenge by the property owners and ruled that the four-car, detached garage could stay.
South Buckinghamshire District Council, backed by the inspector, had maintained that as the garage was only 3.7m away from the main house, it amounted to a “cumulative extension” to the property and so extended the floor area beyond permitted limits.
However, Barry Payton, counsel for the property owners, argued that there would be nothing to prevent them then extending the garage southwards to make up for the lost space, an action that was likely to have a more serious impact on the green belt.
Accepting that argument, the judge said that the planing inspector, in backing the councils stance, had reached a decision that no inspector could logically arrive at. “The decision must therefore be categorised as unreasonable and the decision must be quashed,” he said.
The Environment Secretary was refused permission to appeal.
Sapra v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions Queens Bench Division (Deputy Judge Rich QC) 6 September 2000
PLS News 21/9/00
