Lawful use certificate
Page 40
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Last year we bought a distribution centre which, up to 12 months earlier had been specified on an Operator's Licence.
We applied to base 10 vehicles there and several neighbours objected.
At a public inquiry we produced the planning permission for the site which showed that it had been approved as a distribution centre with 25 parking places for lorries.
The Traffic Commissioner said he could not take the planning permission into account and it gave us no protection from him refusing the application. Was he right ?
Yes. But what you should have done was to obtain a certificate of lawful use for the site and he would be prevented from refusing the application on general environmental grounds. Section 14(2) of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 states that, where an environmental objection or representation has been properly made, a Traffic Commissioner may refuse an application on the grounds that: a) the parking of vehicles at or in the vicinity of the operating centre would cause adverse environmental effects on environmental conditions in the vicinity; or b) the place would be unsuitable for use as an operating centre on other environmental grounds.
But, the TC may not refuse an application under b) above if i) on the date the application was made, the place was already specified in an operator's licence as an operating centre; or ii) the applicant has produced to the TC a certificate of lawful use issued under Section 191 or 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (or Scottish equivalent) stating that the use of the place as an operating centre is or would be lawful.
However, the protection in the preceding paragraph does not apply in relation to a place which, at the time the application is determined by the TC, is specified in an Operator's Licence as an operating centre. This means the protection does not apply to an extra operator moving into an operating centre where an existing operator(s) continues to operate.
Paragraphs i) and ii) above were introduced by the Deregulation Act 1994 to replace the "no material change" provisions of the Transport Act 1968.
Planning permission is not the same as a certificate of lawful use and cannot be taken into account under ii) above.
Sections 191 and 192 of the 'limn and Country Planning Act 1990 (as replaced by the Planning and Compensation Act 1991) provide that a person can apply to the local planning authority for a certificate that an existing or proposed use of buildings or land is lawful. The grounds on which the certificate will be issued is the existence of planning permission.
Having to obtain a certificate to show a lawful use allowed by planning permission appears to be a bureaucratic nonsense but that is the law. We are aware of one council which refused to issue a certificate because it mistakenly believed it related only to 10 years occupation.
Regulation 15 of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Regulations 1995 provides that in making environmental determinations a IC can have regard to planning permission but only in relation to land which has not been previously used as an operating centre.
Similar provisions are also in force in relation to variation applications.