DECISION ON ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS RELATING TO LAPORTE INDUSTRIES SITE IN BEDFORDSHIRE

Craig Howell Williams QC represented Laporte/Evonik Industries at an inquiry into an enforcement notice relating to land in Bedfordshire which had been used to extract Fullers' Earth under planning permissions granted since the 1950s and under conditions reviewed in 1998 under the Environment Act 1995 (the ROMP Approval). The alleged breach of planning control was that landowners were preventing public access to the land and not using the land for public amenity in conflict with conditions on the ROMP Approval. This highly contentious matter, previously the subject of two inquiries and a high court challenge, involved questions about the correct interpretation of the ROMP Approval, the legal efficacy of conditions which purported to require public access without compensation, and about conditions on mineral consents (including the distinctions made in terms of restoration, aftercare and afteruse). The appeal was successful and the enforcement notice quashed by the Secretary of State.

Craig Howell Williams QC represented the appellant Laporte/Evonik Industies