How Many Mickles To Make A Muckle? Heritage Tests Still Not Well Understood

Planning should be about creative judgment and common sense. A recent High Court case¹ concerning the conversion of a pub next to the former Camden Palace Theatre, now a nightclub, to residential use highlights the need to get the basics right first.

The nightclub owner succeeded in quashing the permission for the neighbouring scheme. The local planning authority had grappled with the risks to the nightclub operation of allowing a noise-sensitive use next door and the effects on the surrounding conservation area. The permission was quashed on grounds of misleading reporting of noise issues and unlawful tinkering with conditions imposed by the planning committee.

The committee report identified the proposal's effects on the conservation area's character and appearance, and was thus held to have discharged the duty to pay special regard to this under section 72 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. But it failed to explain to members the