Roderick Morton, writing for Local Government Lawyer, examines just what is the ‘streetscene’ and the ‘character and appearance of an area’? based on a recent Court of Appeal ruling.
… decision is a welcome confirmation that ‘character’ is as important as ‘appearance’…
Local Government Lawyer writes:
In Kazalbash v SSLUHC and Hillingdon [2023] EWCA Civ 904 a developer proposed conversion of an existing dwelling with side extension into two dwellings. No external changes were proposed… The council refused permission because the sub-division… would have a different width to those of the remainder of the street which were fairly uniform. The council said this would be harmful to the character and appearance of the streetscene…
The refusal was challenged and upheld on appeal.
Comment
It is common in enforcement notices to bandy about words such as ‘character and appearance’ and ‘streetscene’ when giving reasons for the notice. The High Court decision was a warning that we must remember to think about what these words mean and carefully demonstrate that there is an impact, particularly when visual impact is small. The Court of Appeal decision is a welcome confirmation that “character” is as important as “appearance”…
Roderick Morton is a partner at Ivy Legal. This article first appeared in Ivy Legal’s monthly column for the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Network for Planning Enforcement (NAPE) newsletter.
