Back in April 2017, Brent Borough Council issued an enforcement notice against Oakington Manor Primary School because it had implemented, without planning permission "a material change of use from a school to a mixed-use as a school and a car park (i.e parking that is not ancillary to the use of the school)".
Under the planning legislative framework, any change of use of a building or a space requires planning permission, although there are exceptions to this contained in the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order SI 1987/764 and the town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order SI 2015/596.
The issue arose after it was discovered that the school was offering the use of its car park during events at Wembley Stadium, which is nearby. As this use of the car park is not ancillary to the school, it should be considered as a mixed-use development which is then technically a change of use of the school and car park.
The school appealed against the enforcement notice, and the appeal was heard through an inquiry.
During the inquiry, the planning inspector noted that the allegation against the school failed to take into consideration other lawful uses of the school building, other than as a school. It is allowed to host wedding receptions for example. It, therefore, became clear that the main issue the Council had was with the use of the car park for events occurring off-site. The Council, therefore, acknowledged its allegation needed to change so it targeted parking for off-site activities only.
However, the school demonstrated that the change of use, i.e. using the car park for events at Wembley Stadium, had started more than 10 years previous to the enforcement notice being issued and the use had occurred continuously throughout the period.
To counter this, the Council claimed that this alternative use of the car park escalated in scale in 2016, during the time Tottenham Hotspur occupied Wembley Stadium for all of their home matches, and that is when the change of use occurred. However, the planning inspector did not agree, and concluded that this particular mixed-use had occurred for more than 10 years.
As a result, the planning inspector directed that the wording of the enforcement notice had to be formally altered to ensure it referred specifically to the use of the car park for off-site events, and then once the correction is made, stated that the appeal is allowed and the enforcement notice would be quashed. This means the school is free to offer the use of the car park to those attending events at Wembley Stadium.
