Since 1985, Lambeth council have had a number of applications approved to vary the consent regarding planning permissions in Woodgate Drive, Streatham. However, in 2014 the variation failed to state, as it has done for years, that the goods sold must be ‘non-food goods’.
It has since been established that there was in fact a drafting error, meaning that the council had intended to continue the ban on food goods being sold in this location.
The Supreme Court has supported the council, stating that the conditions remain both valid and binding, as there was nothing in the new variation that affected their continued operation.
Ben Arrowsmith, an associate in BDB Pitmans’ planning and infrastructure team, comments on this in Planner Resource, in which he discusses the importance of finding the natural and ordinary meaning of words used in planning permission.
The full article is available to Planning Resource subscribers, here.
