HAYTOP COUNTRY PARK LIMITED v SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HOUSING, COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT & Anor

A permitted development right for development required by the conditions of a caravan site licence must be assessed against the licence read as a whole. Development satisfying one condition in isolation does not qualify if it conflicts with another condition regulating the site layout. A claimed fallback position must be evaluated as a matter of planning judgment by reference to the lawful planning permission and its conditions. An inspector may assess interconnected operational works as a whole where their planning harm arises from the layout they create.

The appellant challenged under section 289 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 an inspector’s dismissal of its appeal against an enforcement notice concerning re-profiling, terraced platforms, caravan bases, hardstandings, retaining walls, services and a roadway at Haytop Country Park. It also challenged the refusal of an award of costs.

The central issues were whether the works were permitted development under article 3(1) and Part 5 Class B of schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, whether a future modern caravan site licence formed a material fallback, and whether the inspector had adequately addressed the roadway, services and costs issues.

1. Appeal dismissed. The inspector’s decision to uphold the enforcement notice, subject to corrections, and refuse planning permission on the deemed application disclosed no error of law. The costs decision was also upheld.
2. Article 3(1) and Part 5 Class B of schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 authorise only development required by the conditions of a site licence read together. Works that accord with individual conditions but conflict with the licence’s layout requirements do not qualify.
3. That approach applied the objective contextual construction of public documents. Condition 4 of the 1968 licence regulated caravan locations and informed the location of associated roads, bases, hardstandings and services. The inspector was entitled to find that the new layout was inconsistent with the licence.
4. The asserted fallback of a future modern site licence was considered and rejected. The realistic baseline was the layout authorised by the 1966 planning permission, particularly condition 2, not the post-2016 layout.
5. The inspector gave adequate planning reasons for refusing permission for the new roadway and for treating service connections as integral to the harmful layout. She was entitled to assess the operational development as a whole.
6. The costs challenge failed because the substantive grounds failed and the inspector was reasonably entitled to conclude that the relevant appeals were not bound to succeed.

The appellant was ordered to pay the First Respondent’s assessed costs of £18,671.

The judgment concerns a statutory appeal under section 289 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 from an inspector’s decision dated 20 August 2021. Permission to appeal was granted by Lang J on 8 December 2021. The High Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the inspector’s substantive and costs decisions.