ABSTRACT
In the case of Bailey and Bailey v Secretary of State ex p Sedgemoor District Council [1994] JPL B52; (1995) 69 P & CR 617, the issue before the Court of Appeal was whether an application for an existing use certificate was prevented by the issuing of a temporary planning permission which had expired. The appellants acquired a site in 1981 which had been used for the repair, maintenance and storage of vehicles from a date before the end of 1963. The fact that the use started prior to the end of 1963 made it immune from enforcement action under the provisions of previous planning Acts, which were subsequently amended by the 1991 Act. No planning permission had been granted for the change of use of the land or for the buildings which were subsequently erected on the land. In 1987 the appellants applied to the local planning authority for planning permission for the continued use of the site and were granted temporary planning permission which expired on 30 April 1989. In February 1989, the appellants applied for a further planning permission to continue the use of the site. This was refused and an enforcement notice was served by the local planning authority. Although the appellant’s site had an established use for the repairing and storing of motor vehicles under the old provisions, that is, which required the use to have been established prior to 1963 (now superseded by the ‘10 year rule’) (see Chapter 18), that entitlement had been destroyed by the grant of a two year, temporary planning consent granted in 1987. The effect of that grant of permission had been to make the use lawful for the period of the consent, that is, a two year period (1987-89), after the expiry of which the use became unlawful. The Court of Appeal, therefore, dismissed the appeal on this ground.
