Lawful Development Certificate to Establish 10 Years Industrial Use Approved

We are delighted that Sandwell Metropolitan Borough has approved a Lawful Development Certificate for the retention of an use within a Class B2 industrial use.  

The Site Subject to the Lawful Development Certificate

The application site currently comprises a commercial unit located within West Bromwich.

The site had planning permission for a Class B8 warehouse and Class B1 office use. However, it had been used to provide specialist manufacturing for a nationwide interior fit-out company. This business had been operating from the site within this manufacturing use for over 10 years.

The Planning Issue: Applying the 10-Year Rule

To regularise the existing use class, a Lawful Development Certificate was submitted to establish that the application site for been used continuously for 10-years within this unauthorised use.

The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 states that where a breach of planning control has taken place, no enforcement action may be taken after the end of the period of ten years. This is sometimes known as the 10-year rule.

Applying this rule, we gathered the evidence required to demonstrate that the manufacturing use had been carried out over a continuous 10 year period. We then set out a robust case using case law to justify why the Lawful Development Certificate should be approved.

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough subsequently approved the application.

Do you have need to regularise an unauthorised planning use?

Have you been operating from a site without the correct planning permissions? If so, contact our planners, and we can appraise you site and develop a way forward through the planning process. Contact us at mail@adpltd.co.uk or use the form below.