Cases - East Barnet Urban District Council v British Transport Commission

Record details

Name

East Barnet Urban District Council v British Transport Commission

Date

[1962]

Citation

2 QB 484

Keywords

Planning control

Summary

The British Transport Commission (BTC) acquired land that had been used by railway companies for stacking railway coal. Vauxhall Motors took leases of the land in order to use it as a transit depot for the handling and storage of cars in boxes. Ninety-nine per cent of the cars were moved by rail and they were usually stacked for between 4 and 14 days. The local planning authority served enforcement notices on BTC and Vauxhall requiring use as a transit depot to cease. The justices determined that use as a transit depot was not development and quashed the notices. The authority appealed to the Divisional Court. I

n dismissing the appeal Lord Parker CJ said:

'... what one is really considering is the character of the use of the land and not the particular purpose of a particular occupier.

The mere fact that the commodity changes does not necessarily mean that the land is being used for a different purpose nor, as it seems to me, is there any relevance in the fact that the purpose for which the land is used is effected by other hands, in this case by [Vauxhall] and their employees.'

(Lord Parker accepted that use as a transit depot may be intensification, but noted that that is a matter of fact and degree for the justices.)