ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the cases which are important in understanding the legal interpretation of the elements contained in the definition of what constitutes 'development'. There is an important distinction between 'operations' and 'use'. 'Operations' was held in Cheshire CC v Woodward, which involved the installation of a coal hopper mounted on wheels, to be an act which changes the physical characteristics of the land, or what is under it, or in the air above it, whereas 'use' refers to the purposes to which a building or land are devoted. The question as to whether demolition constitutes an 'operation' remained largely unresolved until 1991. The term 'building operations' is clearly intended to relate to work carried out involving work to a building defined in s 366(1) and 55(1)(A) of the Town and Country Planning Act as: any structure or erection, and any part of a building as so defined, but does not include plant or machinery comprised in a building.
