We apologise for the interruption...............

We have reached one of those frustrating periods again when pressures on my time prevent my keeping up-to-date with this blog. I fear that by the time I can post the next entry on this blog, more than a fortnight is likely to have passed since the previous item was posted at the end of last week. Regrettably, the same applies to the moderation of comments, and so here too there is likely to be a hiatus.

Meanwhile, there have been further developments on which I wish to report when I have the opportunity to do so. My attention has been drawn to a couple of recent judgments that are relevant to the issue of conditions removing permitted development rights and/or removing the right (under section 55(2)(f)) to use a planning unit for purposes falling within the same use class as the existing use. Unfortunately, these judgments are not as clear as might have been hoped and do not really help in clarifying the position.

I have not forgotten that I promised to look at the small print in the recent GPDO amendment order, which limits or restricts some of the development potentially permitted by these changes. There is also an unresolved issue as to the validity of conditions attached to prior approvals issued by LPAs before 6 April 2014. Are these, as some have suggested, ultra vires, or is the provision in the latest amendment order confirming that LPAs have power to impose conditions on prior approvals under Part 3 retrospective in its effect as regards conditions imposed before 6 April 2014? I am rather inclined to doubt this, but the position is not all that clear-cut.

So there is plenty to talk about, but it may have to wait at least another 10 days, before I can get back to posting further entries on this blog.

© MARTIN H GOODALL