Town & country planning

The Court of Appeal dismissed the claimant’s appeal, which arose from the second defendant local planning authority’s purported refusal of its application for change of use of a site from Class B1(a), namely offices, to Class C3, namely dwelling houses, and for a lawful development certificate for a Class C3, on the basis that a condition imposed in February 2005 excluded rights under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 (SI 1995/418) (the 1995 order) and that the condition restricted the use of the site to B1 only. The court agreed with the lower court and held that, on its proper construction, the planning condition in question excluded the operation of the 1995 order. It held that, the natural and ordinary meaning of the words used was that the condition allowed planning permission for other uses, but restricted to that obtained upon application from the local planning authority, and excluded planning