Cases - Mansi v Elstree RDC

Record details

Name

Mansi v Elstree RDC

Date

(1964)

Citation

16 P&CR 153

Keywords

Enforcement notice

Summary

Since 1922 the appeal site had been used primarily for horticulture with a secondary use for retail sale of nursery produce and some imported fruit and vegetables. In 1959 Mansi acquired the site and began to use one of the greenhouses and a concrete area in front of it, upon which he placed a stall, for the sale of goods including drinks and ice-cream. An enforcement notice was served requiring the sale of goods to be discontinued. Mansi claimed that the notice went too far in that it was an embargo on all sales of goods and would prevent him from continuing the limited retail sales that had been a feature of the site for 40 years. The Divisional Court agreed:

'The planning Acts gave no power to the local planning authority to restrict or remove that use, such as it was.' (Mr Justice Widgery)

Following Miller-Mead the notice was not a nullity, but the Minister should have recognised that it went too far and ought to have amended it to make it clear that it did not prevent retail use on the scale and in the manner which was lawful.