A Kettering resident has successfully challenged a decision by Kettering Borough Council that premises at 83, 85 and 87 the Broadway are used for residential accommodation, and should not be reclassified as hostels.
Allowing Yvonne Hossack’s challenge, Lightman J held that the use of the properties fulfilled all the characteristics of a hostel, that is to say “buildings providing relatively short stays and inexpensive sleeping accommodation and shared communal facilities, eg for cooking and recreation”.
He said that “viewed in isolation, the use of none of the properties could reasonably be viewed by the council as use by the residents living together as a single household”.
Ms Hossack had claimed that the premises, which are used by English Churches Housing Group (ECHG) as temporary accommodation for up to 12 young people, aged between 16 and 24 years, had been subjected to a change of use to a hostel, and that, as such, ECHG need to obtain planning permission for the new use.
Lightman J has quashed the councils decision and has directed them to redetermine the question of the lawfulness of the use of the properties in the light of the terms of his judgment.
R (on the application of Hossack) v Kettering Borough Council Queens Bench Division: Administrative Court (Lightman J) 25 March 2002.
PLS News 26/03/02
