Cases - Kent CC v Brockman
Record details
- Name
- Kent CC v Brockman
- Date
- [1996]
- Citation
- 1 PLR 1
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Planning control - Town and Country Planning Act 1990
- Summary
-
A 65-year-old man who had had a heart attack and was in difficult financial circumstances was unable to comply with an enforcement notice relating to land that he owned. The Divisional Court held that the magistrates may take personal circumstances into account in considering whether an owner has a defence under section 179(3) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. So a person who is genuinely incapacitated by reason of physical or financial incapacity has a defence. However, the judges sounded a note of caution about accepting protestations of impecuniosity. Lord Justice Simon Brown said that land should not be left in an unsatisfactory state unless a landowner has taken every practical step to overcome his or her financial problems in complying with the enforcement notice, to the extent if need be of selling the land.