Alex Johnstone, R (on the application of) v Rother District Council

Facts

The claimant, Alex Johnstone, brought a judicial review claim in the Planning Court against Rother District Council, with Elizabeth Sargent as interested party. On 12 June 2026 the Council had granted a certificate of lawfulness for existing use under application number RR/2025/1953/LDE, relating to The Old Grain Store, Eastlands Farm, The Stream, Catsfield, East Sussex. The certificate certified that, on 4 November 2025, the existing use of the whole building as a joinery workshop producing kitchens, cricket bats, windows and other joinery was lawful within the meaning of section 191 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, because the evidence supported the claim that the building had been in that use for more than ten years before the application. The claimant challenged the decision on three grounds: unlawful consultation or breach of the common law duty of fairness; failure to have regard to a material consideration, namely whether the use fell within use class E(g)(iii); and inadequate reasons. The parties agreed that the decision should be quashed on the first ground, and the matter came before Fordham J for determination on the papers of an agreed order and Agreed Statement of Reasons, which he embodied in a published judgment in the interests of open justice.