Section 73 Changes – Don't Let The Gremlins In

The Court of Appeal's decision in Finney v Welsh Ministers in late 2019 – that Section 73 permissions cannot alter the description of development – should not have come as a shock. We noted in the original Lambeth appeal case that S73 should be approached as doing what it says in the 1990 Act – authorising development other than in accordance with conditions imposed on the original grant of permission.

Unusual Restraint

In Finney, the developer had applied for (and obtained) permission for "...two wind turbines, with a tip height of up to 100m". It appealed against the later refusal of permission under S73 for amendments to conditions to extend the tip height to 125m.  The Inspector considered the merits of the increased height and decided to grant permission, deleting reference to the height in the description of development while doing so (to avoid the fundamental inconsistency between it and the revised conditions that would otherwise result).   The Court of