North West Estates Plc v Buckinghamshire County Council

An unappealed and unquashed enforcement notice cannot be challenged in later injunction proceedings on grounds which could have been advanced on a statutory appeal. Section 285 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 protects its enforceability, unless the document is not an enforcement notice at all.

The court retains a wide discretion under section 187B. It may consider planning history, but it must not allow that discretion to become a disguised challenge to the notice. A time-barred established use may be relevant background, but it is not an absolute defence. In exercising equitable discretion, the court may consider dishonesty in the planning history and the purchaser's knowledge of the notice.

A 1952 planning permission for sand and gravel extraction required the removal of buildings and materials when working ended. A new workshop was erected in 1986 and used for an independent engineering business. Earlier proceedings established that enforcement action against that use was time-barred.

In 1998 the Council issued Enforcement Notice No. 4 for breach of the removal condition after quarrying ceased. The notice required removal of the workshop. It was not appealed. North West Estates later bought the land with notice of the enforcement notice.

Jacob J granted a mandatory injunction under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requiring removal of the workshop. The appeal raised whether the established engineering use excluded the workshop from the notice, or required the court to refuse injunctive relief.

Ward LJ, with whom Laws LJ and Jonathan Parker LJ agreed, dismissed the appeal.

1. Enforcement Notice No. 4 covered the workshop and required its removal. The appellant could have challenged the notice, including its application to the workshop and the necessity of the required steps, through an appeal under section 174(2). It was too late to advance those arguments after the notice had become unappealed and unquashed.

2. Section 285 protected the notice from a later collateral attack. Following Reg. v Wicks [1998] A.C. 92, an enforcement notice which is formally valid and has not been quashed must be obeyed. The principle applied equally where enforcement was sought by injunction rather than criminal proceedings. Only a document that was not an enforcement notice at all could fall outside that rule.

3. The court's discretion under section 187B was wide, and planning history could be considered. However, the established engineering use could not be elevated into a disguised challenge to the notice. A Mansi-type argument might have been available on an appeal against the notice, but it was not an absolute defence in the injunction proceedings. South Buckinghamshire D.C. v Porter [2002] 1 W.L.R. 1359 required caution because it concerned Article 8 rights and did not address section 285.

4. The judge was entitled to take account of the predecessor's dishonest representations about the workshop's use. Injunctive relief is equitable, and the appellant had acquired the land knowing that the unchallenged notice required removal. The foreseeable effect on the appellant's business did not justify refusing enforcement.

The order of Jacob J was affirmed.

• Court of Appeal (Civil Division): Appeal dismissed; the mandatory injunction requiring removal of the workshop was affirmed: [2003] EWCA Civ 719.
• Chancery Division (Jacob J): On 31 May 2002, granted a mandatory injunction under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requiring North West Estates Plc to remove the buildings, including the workshop.