Mobile homes and separate planning units

An inspector has refused an appeal made against Swansea Council’s refusal to grant a certificate of lawful use or development for the use of a mobile home on land in the Gower National Landscape.

The appeal turned on whether the land on which the mobile home stood formed part of the same planning unit as the Appellants’ dwellinghouse (it was accepted that use of the mobile home would be interdependent with use of the main dwelling).

Whilst there was no dispute that the whole site was within single ownership and occupation, the Inspector (applying the well-known Burdle test) agreed with the Council that the area where the mobile home was situated (referred to as Area D) was a physically separate and distinct area to the established garden of the dwelling, with a clear and significant boundary between these areas for most of the relevant period. Area D was adjacent to land which the Council accepted formed the dwelling’s residential garden. The Council described Area D as a field/paddock. Having considered all the submitted evidence (which included statutory declarations, aerial photographs, photographs and videos of use of the land, planning history and conveyancing documentation, as well as the sworn oral testimony), along with her site visit observations, the Inspector concluded that Area D was a separate planning unit to the dwellinghouse and its residential garden, with an established use for agriculture (Area D also fell outside the residential curtilage).

The introduction of the mobile home in 2023 had resulted in a material change in use of Area D from this established use to use with a residential character and that material change of use had not become immune from enforcement action.

Ultimately, the Inspector concluded that the Council’s decision to refuse to grant a lawful development certificate was well-founded. In line with this, she also refused a full costs application that had been made by the Appellants against the Council, finding that there had been no unreasonable conduct by the Council in its consideration of the case.

Esther Drabkin-Reiter and Merrow Golden are barristers at Francis Taylor Building. They represented Swansea Council.