Question 1

Parking Issues

Accepted Answer

We want to get professional advice, for which we are prepared to pay, from a specialist in planning issues. We wonder if you could suggest someone, preferably not from Plymouth. Briefly the issue is that some additional parking spaces were created for residents' visitors when our apartment block was built in 2004, as a result of a condition included by the council in the original planning consent. Half of those spaces were built over in 2011. The freeholder now intends to sell the remaining seven spaces and they will cease being available to all, as they have been. The council seems to be saying that so long as the use does not change - i e they remain parking spaces- it is not interested in the fact that they will only be used by a small group of people, and probably infrequently. It would therefore probably not see a case for enforcement action. The FPRA responds: I am not aware of any case-law precedents on this. If the council does not state the spaces are for RESIDENTS or VISITORS then I believe in law - parking would be parking and therefore unless the quota originally intended of x spaces to x flats which might have been stated in the UDP is breached there is probably no breach of planning and if the lease is silent then no breach of contract. Subsequent Question: It has left me a bit confused, because the consent does say that the parking is for the use of occupiers or visitors - see the exact wording as given in my previous email. However this statement appears under the heading of "reason". Does this mean that it is not a valid part of the planning condition? The FPRA responds: Where a consent is for OCCUPIERS or VISITORS then there would probably still be no planning breach if the spaces were sold to occupiers. This is not a legal opinion but a practical one - a lawyer should be appointed to opine.

Question 2

Parking Issues

Accepted Answer

We want to get professional advice, for which we are prepared to pay, from a specialist in planning issues. We wonder if you could suggest someone, preferably not from Plymouth. Briefly the issue is that some additional parking spaces were created for residents' visitors when our apartment block was built in 2004, as a result of a condition included by the council in the original planning consent. Half of those spaces were built over in 2011. The freeholder now intends to sell the remaining seven spaces and they will cease being available to all, as they have been. The council seems to be saying that so long as the use does not change - i e they remain parking spaces- it is not interested in the fact that they will only be used by a small group of people, and probably infrequently. It would therefore probably not see a case for enforcement action. The FPRA responds: I am not aware of any case-law precedents on this. If the council does not state the spaces are for RESIDENTS or VISITORS then I believe in law - parking would be parking and therefore unless the quota originally intended of x spaces to x flats which might have been stated in the UDP is breached there is probably no breach of planning and if the lease is silent then no breach of contract. Subsequent Question: It has left me a bit confused, because the consent does say that the parking is for the use of occupiers or visitors - see the exact wording as given in my previous email. However this statement appears under the heading of "reason". Does this mean that it is not a valid part of the planning condition? The FPRA responds: Where a consent is for OCCUPIERS or VISITORS then there would probably still be no planning breach if the spaces were sold to occupiers. This is not a legal opinion but a practical one - a lawyer should be appointed to opine.

Parking Issues

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