Cases - Hawkey v Secretary of State for the Environment

Record details

Name

Hawkey v Secretary of State for the Environment

Date

(1971)

Citation

22 P&CR 610

Keywords

Planning control

Summary

The site consisted of a haulage contractor's yard on which there stood a bungalow, a workshop and 5 other small buildings. An office and a canteen in the bungalow were used in connection with the business in the yard. The appellant began to repair vehicles other than his own and to carry out a car hire service. An enforcement notice against these uses was served in respect of the yard but not the bungalow. The appellant claimed that the notice should have been directed to the planning unit, that is the yard plus bungalow.

The Divisional Court held that an enforcement notice need not identify the planning unit. It may, as in this case, be directed to the area where the unlawful activity is taking place. It is open to the landowner to try to establish, on appeal, that the planning unit is larger than that specified in the notice and that therefore no material change of use has taken place.