In this case, the Council were satisfied that the proposals meet the relevant criteria within Class MA of the General Permitted Development Order (GPDO). However, the Council referred to the original Outline Permission for the Business Park and a condition attached to this permission requiring that ‘the employment uses on the employment land permitted by this development shall be only for uses falling within Class B1 of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987’.
The Council regarded the above condition as having the effect of removing the permitted development rights for the building under Part 3 of the GPDO for any subsequent change of use.
We then lodged an appeal against this decision, referring to relevant case law and recent appeal decisions which covered similar situations. In the end, our appeal was allowed and Prior Approval granted with the Inspector concluding that:
‘The condition does not clearly or expressly seek to prevent a future use of the employment land for residential purposes. My interpretation is that the condition is narrow in its restriction and only seeks to restrict alternative employment uses of the employment land in order to protect nearby residential properties from those other uses. As such, the condition does not restrict the application of the GPDO permitted development rights for the re-use of existing employment sites for housing’