Michael Lyndon-Stanford QC v Mid Suffolk District Council Duncan West and Others (Interested Parties)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr John Howell |
| Judgment Date | 19 December 2016 |
| Neutral Citation | [2016] EWHC 3284 (Admin) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Date | 19 December 2016 |
| Docket Number | Case No: CO/2439/2016 |
[2016] EWHC 3284 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
PLANNING COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
John Howell QC
Sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge
Case No: CO/2439/2016
— and —
Mr Richard Turney (instructed by Richard Buxton Solicitors) for the Claimant
Mr Giles Atkinson (instructed by Babergh Mid Suffolk Legal) for the Defendants
The Interested Parties did not appear and where not represented
Hearing dates: 30 th November 2016
Approved Judgment
Mr John Howell QC:
This is a claim for judicial review impugning a decision of the Mid-Suffolk District Council to grant planning permission and listed building consent for works to provide three dwellings and to demolish four modern buildings at Castle Farm Barns, Vicarage Road, Wingfield, Suffolk. Permission to make this claim was granted by Lang J.
BACKGROUND
i. Wingfield Castle
The Claimant, Mr Michael Lyndon-Stanford QC, is the owner and occupier of Wingfield Castle. The moated Castle is a Grade I listed building of special architectural and historic interest. It was originally built by the Earl of Suffolk, Michael de la Pole, after he was given licence to crenellate, in about 1385. The main residence was partially demolished after the Castle was seized by Henry VIII when the then Earl fell out of favour and was executed in 1513. The south curtain wall of the Castle, however, remains intact. It contains a gatehouse and polygonal stone bastions. The gatehouse has two 3-storey polygonal corner towers. Its outer entrance has a moulded segmental pointed arch. The main approach to the Castle, from Vicarage Road to the south, goes to this gatehouse.
The Castle was sold by Henry VIII to Sir John Jerningham in 1544 who repaired the surviving parts and made some additions.
ii. Castle Farm Barns
In the late sixteenth century the Jerningham family also constructed a large timber-framed barn, just beyond the Castle's moat, immediately to the south- east of the gatehouse and to the east of the main approach to the Castle. The Long Barn was an unusually long, substantial brick and timber-framed building of 10 bays. The roof was changed, and two new bays were added to the east, in about 1860 by Sir Robert Adair of Flixton Hall who had acquired the whole estate. The key elements of the Tudor barn frame, however, including a large number of cranked tie-beam braces and evidence of windows with moulded mullions to stable and loft, survive intact.
Three red-brick and pantiled animal shelter sheds were also added to the southern elevation of the Long Barn in about 1860, each with an open yard to the west. At the east end of the Long Barn a cattle or stock house was added in about 1910. South of the fold yards there is a cartshed with a granary over that also dates from about 1860.
The Barns are Grade II listed buildings of special architectural and historic interest. The list description states that
"These C16 and C19 farm buildings are of special interest in themselves and form part of a very significant group both visually and historically with Wingfield Castle which stands close by to the northwest…..The group value with the Castle is very significant both visually, since these buildings have a close visual relationship, and historically. The group makes up part of the early Tudor estate complex resuscitated after the Jerninghams took over the estate…..Suffolk moated manors and their farmsteads are very important in a national context…"
The farm, including the Barns, was sold into separate ownership during the twentieth century. It is now (and has for some period) been in the ownership of the West family.
iii. the application for conversion of the farm buildings into four dwellings in 2006 and Inspector's decision in 2007
In 2006 CA West and Son sought planning permission to convert the farm buildings to form four dwellings, three of them in the Long Barn and one in the cartshed/granary, and to demolish a number of twentieth century additions. That application was refused by the Council on the ground that conversion to residential use was inappropriate and would harm the setting and character of the Castle. An appeal against that decision was dismissed by an Inspector, BD Bagot (" the Inspector"), in a letter dated September 11 th 2007.
The Inspector found that impact in the interior of the Long Barn (where it was possible to appreciate the full effect of its existing space and timber framework) would be largely lost, and that the interest of the cartshed / granary would also be diminished, by the works then proposed. In his view the conversion proposed would have substantially changed the listed buildings as a whole and its essential agricultural character would not have been preserved.
Since, as the Inspector found, the Claimant was willing to acquire the buildings for agricultural use and to put them into repair, he considered that an alternative use was not urgently required to secure the preservation of the listed buildings (which he had noted were then in a poor state of repair) and that the proposed conversion to residential use was not warranted.
Although refusing permission on these grounds, the Inspector considered that the restoration and repair of the farm buildings, the removal of unsightly elements, and the implementation of the landscaping scheme proposed would enhance the visual setting of the Castle. Moreover, notwithstanding the historic association of the farmstead with the Castle, the Inspector was not convinced that the residential use of the Long Barn and cartshed / granary would be harmful to the setting of the Castle. In that he differed from the views of the Council, English Heritage and number of experts including Professor Robert Liddiard of the University of East Anglia (who had conducted research and written on castles having completed his doctoral research on the landscape context of castles in East Anglia in the period 1066–1500). In the Inspector's view "the proposed conversion and demolition…would not be harmful to the setting of the adjoining listed building".
iii. events before the applications giving rise to this claim for judicial review
In 2009 the Barns were placed on a "Buildings at Risk" register by the Council.
In February 2010 an architectural historian, Mr Leigh Alston, produced a report for Suffolk County Council on the Farm and its historic significance. This report was later said by the Council's Heritage Team to have assessed "the building's historical significance in exemplary manner, shedding new light on the original form and subsequent evolution of the building, and its role in the setting of the Castle."
In his summary Mr Alston stated that the farm buildings
"include an important late-16th century timber-framed barn that was built by the Jerninghams as part of a highly fashionable 'seigniorial landscape' to aggrandise the castle. It originally contained ten bays and extended to an impressive 120 feet in length (36.5 m) with exposed timbers, symmetrical bracing and brick nogging. Similar gentry barns elsewhere were usually aligned at right-angles to the house, facing an enclosed courtyard of service buildings, but this example lies on the same axis as the castle and was apparently designed to extend the width and resulting visual impact of its façade. It remains of vital importance to the castle's historic context and integrity. The barn contained a sophisticated interior with a three-bay stable and hay loft to the west, a three-bay open barn in the centre and a four-bay barn to the east (all entered from the south). It was extensively altered in circa 1860 by Sir Robert Adair of Flixton Hall to form part of an equally sophisticated 'model farm' with uniform red-brick animal sheds and a good cartlodge/granary. This farm complex is of historic interest in its own right."
His conclusion on the historic significance of Castle Farm Barns was that:
"Despite the extent of its alterations in the mid-19th century the Tudor barn is still an imposing and nationally important example of its type. Its scale and external decoration was designed to extend the width and visual impact of the gatehouse when approaching from the south, and it forms part of a rare late Elizabethan 'seigniorial landscape' reflecting the status of one of East Anglia's most important families. It remains of vital importance to the historic context and integrity of the grade I-listed castle, and accordingly, in my view, merits listing at grade II*. The refurbishment of circa 1860 is of historic interest in itself as part of a well-preserved 'model' farm in the latest fashion of its day, and illustrates the wealth of the Flixton Hall estate to which it belonged."
In July 2015 applications were made for planning permission and listed building consent for the conversion of the Barns to three dwellings. That also attracted objections from the Claimant and Historic England and representations from Professor Liddiard. The applications were subsequently withdrawn.
iv. the applications giving rise to this claim for judicial review
On December 2015 Warren Hill Farms, the Third Interested Party, applied for planning permission and listed building consent to demolish four modern agricultural buildings and part of the cattle shed and elements of Castle Farm Barns and to convert the barns into three dwellings. The proposal involved the provision of two dwellings within the Long Barn and one within the cartshed /granary.
The applications were accompanied by a Design & Access/Heritage Statement by the applicant's architects, Beech Architects Limited, and a copy of the report by...
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