Administrative / Public Law · The Court of Appeal of England and Wales (Civil Division)
Smar Holdings Limited, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Checked against the judgment on 28 August 2026 · how we verify
Facts
Smar Holdings Limited is the freehold owner of land at Keynsham Garden Centre, Hicks Gate, Keynsham, Bristol. Between February and March 2019 it felled 8 field maples and 17 poplars there — nearly 54 cubic metres of timber over about 2 hectares — without a felling licence, far exceeding the exemption in section 9(3) of the Forestry Act 1967. On 9 March 2020 the Forestry Commission served a restocking notice under section 17A of the Forestry Act 1967 requiring 2,233 whips to be planted and maintained for ten years. Smar appealed to the Secretary of State under section 17B of the Forestry Act 1967, contending that the site was proposed for a strategic housing allocation of 750 homes in an emerging Bristol local plan, that the notice would blight that development, and that the maintenance requirement should either be disapplied once a full planning permission was granted or be met on alternative land. A reference committee held a hearing and site visit on 2 June 2023 and recommended that the notice stand; the Secretary of State upheld it on 6 November 2023, subject only to a new compliance date. Lieven J, hearing three related judicial reviews together, quashed that decision. The Secretary of State appealed.
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