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Certificates of Lawfulness of Proposed Use or Development under Section 192 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 are a useful tool within the planning process. Recently, CSJ Planning have undertaken a number of these applications on behalf of clients who require certainty for uses they propose on existing land and buildings.

A recent case revolved around a nursery operator wanting to undertake 60 days of plant sales to the public, from their wholesale nursery. The client was informed at the pre-application stage by the Local Planning Authority that they would need to submit a full planning application for a change of use, supported by a retail impact assessment, sequential test and works to the access of the nursery site. Such requirements would be very expensive to prepare and take considerable time for the LPA to scrutinise and determine.

CSJ Planning Consultants were instructed to advise on the issue and devised an argument under a Certificate of Lawful Proposed Use that the proposals were ancillary to the main use of the land and buildings, and therefore did not require planning consent. The Local Planning Authority subsequently accepted the evidence before them and issued the certificate.

Another recent project encompassed whether or not a particular element of research could be undertaken within a building for agricultural storage and agricultural research use. Again, the element of research proposed was accepted by the Local Planning Authority to be within the scope of the original planning consent, thereby negating the requirement for a formal planning application.

Given the time constraints and the necessity for supporting surveys and extensive technical reports to accompany a formal planning application, the use of the certificate of lawfulness approach, where there is a good prospect of success, is a valuable tool for regularising both the existing and proposed uses of buildings and land.

16 October 2018

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