Killian Garvey successfully defends the service of an enforcement notice by North Northamptonshire Council
Kettering Borough Council served an enforcement notice in 2020 against a mixed use, which was comprised of minerals and other issues (such as residential uses, storage a fishing lake business etc).
The claimant challenged the service of the enforcement notice on the basis that Kettering Borough Council lacked the legal authority to serve the enforcement notice. The claimant’s argument was that an enforcement notice dealing with the use of land for the winning, working, storage and sale of minerals could only be served by the mineral planning authority, not by Kettering (which was then the district authority).
Interestingly, during the course of litigation Kettering Borough Council was wound up and North Northamptonshire Council was constituted in its place. North Northamptonshire Council are a unitary authority with the powers of both the district authority and the mineral planning authority. Nevertheless, the Court considered the correct legal situation at the point that the enforcement notice was served.
The Court held that as what had been enforced against was a mixed use, rather than just a mineral use, it followed that it fell to the district authority to take enforcement action. Thus, the Court held that the enforcement notice had been validly served and dismissed the claim.
The judgment provides interesting commentary about how two different authorities can work in tandem to take enforcement action.