ABSTRACT
A compulsory purchase order (CPO) is used by local authorities to acquire private land or properties which the seller is unwilling to sell, but which the local authority considers it is in the public interest to buy. Owners of key pieces of land or properties who attempt to hold a local authority to 'ransom' to extract too high a price can be thwarted by the CPO procedure – eventually. The fact that the local council discovered the right of way after planning permission for the business park was granted and work had commenced does not make its case any easier. The problem concerns a private right of way which passes diagonally across the middle part of the proposed site. The owner seeks compensation for the loss of his right of way. The local authority could initiate a CPO for the right of way.
