Cases - Kensington and Chelsea Royal London Borough Council v C G Hotels

Record details

Name

Kensington and Chelsea Royal London Borough Council v C G Hotels

Date

(1981)

Citation

41 P&CR 40

Keywords

Planning control

Summary

The owners of a hotel installed floodlights without planning permission. A planning inspector held that no development had occurred as the floodlights themselves were virtually invisible from the street and so did not materially affect the external appearance of the building. The planning authority appealed on the ground that at night the whole purpose of the floodlights was to affect the external appearance of the building. The Divisional Court held that the running of electricity through the apparatus was what materially affected the building's appearance. Since this was not an operation it could be not be development.