The Case

Town and country planning Change of use. Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court: The change of use of land ancillary to a dwelling house could properly be described as a part of the change of use affecting the dwelling house itself, and once the use of a building as a dwelling house became lawful under s171B(2) of the so did the use of land within the same planning unit. Accordingly, when dismissing the claimant's appeals against enforcement notices and against the refusal of planning permission, the inspector's approach to the issue of planning units had been correct as a matter of law and he had been more than entitled to conclude that, on the evidence, the relevant site comprised a single planning unit. Once that finding was accepted, s57(4) of the Act could not avail the claimant by permitting resumption of the site's previous lawful use. The claimant's applications to quash the inspector's decisions were therefore dismissed.