Landowner loses Upper Tribunal appeal over certificate of appropriate alternative development for site acquired for link road

The owner of a field that was compulsorily acquired to provide land for the construction of a link road has lost his appeal over the certificate of appropriate alternative development he was given.

In Buckley v Cheshire East Borough Council (Compensation - Planning Permission) [2020] UKUT 75 the landowner, William Buckley, was seeking compensation on the basis that he would have obtained planning permission for the construction of five new detached houses on the site, a field in Somerford. It was acquired for the construction of the Congleton Link Road, which is now well under way.

However, the certificate of appropriate alternative development, given in accordance with section 17 of the Land Compensation Act 1961, states that permission would have been granted for a number of agricultural or outdoor uses but not for new houses.

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) rejected the appeal, determining that the certificate represented all the forms of development for which planning permission could reasonably have been expected to be granted.

Judge Elizabeth Cooke, who heard the case with AJ Trott FRICS, said the development proposed by Mr Buckley was in conflict with the development plan and there were no material considerations that would lead the Upper Tribunal, considering afresh the application for a certificate under section 17 of the 1961 Act, to certify that permission would be granted for development in the form that the applicant wanted to carry out.

The Upper Tribunal added that there was no challenge to the positive aspects of the certificate given on 15 April 2019 and it adopted the provisions of that certificate as to what would be permitted and the conditions attached. “Accordingly, for all the reasons given above, we confirm the certificate already given, and the appeal fails.”