I am presently working on a case for a minerals and waste authority which has raised a question of whether the planning permission has been implemented or not. The pp was granted several years ago. It consisted of several elements and was part retrospective and part proposed. The situation is complicated by the use of conditions some of which say "before any development is commenced....." whilst other are only triggered by specified actions on site. However, none of the conditions referred specifically to the retrospective element. There are differing view in the office over whether the pp has been implemented. On the one hand there is the view that as the general pre start conditions have not been complied with then the pp has not been implemented. The other view is that the day the pp was issued meant that the restrospective element became "lawful" and that action means the pp has been implemented. Therefore the rest can follow on whenever the developer wishes. The first day after issuing must mean something as If there are no specific conditions relating to the retrospective element ,(so nothing to submit) what would happen if the developer just ran the time clock down and went over the 3 year period to implement. Surely the restrospective element would not become unathorised again! (By the way none of the pre start conditions can be interpreted as relating to the restrospective element). Has anyone faced a similar problem and what was the outcome? Thanks Steve Cornwell
