Cases - R v City of London Corporation and Royal Mutual Insurance Society ex parte Master and Governors and Commonalty of the Mystery of the Barbers of London

Record details

Name
R v City of London Corporation and Royal Mutual Insurance Society ex parte Master and Governors and Commonalty of the Mystery of the Barbers of London
Date
(1996)
Citation
2 EGLR 128
Legislation
Keywords
Rights of light - Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s. 237
Summary

In the 1950s the Corporation (the local planning authority for the City of London) acquired land for the purpose of redevelopment by compulsory purchase. In 1962, a building lease was granted to the Insurance Society which built Shelley House on the site. Afterwards, in 1969, the Corporation granted land to Barbers and covenanted not to cause any obstruction to the light passing through any of the windows on Barbers' property. In 1995, the Corporation and the Insurance Society agreed to demolish and redevelop Shelley House. This redevelopment would have interfered with Barbers' right of light. Barbers then applied for judicial review of the Corporation's decision that section 237 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 authorised interference with their right to light. Barbers argued that this section no longer applied once the original development had been carried out and that the right under the Act to interfere with easements did not apply to easements granted by the authority itself.

Barbers' application for judicial review failed. The judge held that where the land had been acquired 'for planning purposes' under the Act, the section was not limited in its application to the original development. The judge stated that, as sites needed to be redeveloped from time to time, a local authority would need to be able to override third party rights when carrying out redevelopments as well as when carrying out the initial development. The judge also held that section 237 was not intended to be limited to rights other than those granted by the local authority itself.