Cases - Fidler v First Secretary of State
Record details
- Name
- Fidler v First Secretary of State
- Date
- [2004]
- Citation
- EWCA Civ 1295
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Planning control - Town and Country Planning Act 1990 s. 173
- Summary
-
Land was used for a mixture of purposes including agriculture, storage, haulage depot, a building and demolition contractor's depot, motor vehicle repairs, etc. An enforcement notice was served which, in effect, required the cessation of the non-agricultural uses. This notice was upheld. However, an earlier notice was directed at use of part of the site as an engineering contractor's depot. That notice required cessation of the engineering use and the removal of equipment in connection with it. It was therefore claimed that this was a case of under-enforcement and all the other activities (not mentioned in that notice) had deemed planning permission under section 173(11) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
The Court of Appeal rejected this claim. It was held, following Scott v Secretary of State for the Environment (2000), that section 173(11) only applies to activities included in the description of the breach in the notice. If this were not so, the LPA would have the impossible task of seeking out and specifying every breach before they took enforcement action in order to avoid irrational exemptions to planning control.