Four years without horses did not extinguish lawful horse keeping at a Derbyshire site after the Inspector found the long-established use had become dormant.
The gap followed a family health crisis, and the explanation helped distinguish temporary inactivity from abandonment of the lawful horse-keeping use.
Horse keeping stretched back decades
The appeal concerned about 0.2 hectares at Sunny Bank, White Lane, Ridgway, Sheffield, with grassland and four buildings including stables and barns.
Mrs Elizabeth Lee had applied for a lawful development certificate for what was described as an “equestrian use”. North East Derbyshire District Council refused the application, leading to appeal APP/R1038/X/25/3376000.
The family had retained the land after selling an adjacent dwelling in 1975. The appellant and her sister each kept a pony there between about 1980 and 1995. They then rented the land and stables to other horse and pony owners, generally for two and sometimes three animals, until around 2019.
The paper trail was thin
The documentary evidence was far from perfect. Photographs were undated, there were no invoices or receipts proving the 1995 to 2019 lettings, and no documentary evidence directly established horse keeping during the earlier 1980 to 1995 period.
The appellant’s own document described as a sworn declaration also did not meet the formal requirements of a statutory declaration. Her sister, however, provided a sworn affidavit at appeal stage.
Inspector John Braithwaite found no reason to doubt their account. He accepted that the land had been used continuously for keeping horses for more than ten years by 1995, so the use had become lawful, and that it continued at materially the same level until 2019.
Why lawful horse keeping survived the four-year gap
Horse keeping stopped after the appellant’s father suffered a second stroke and required substantial care. The sisters’ caring responsibilities left no time to manage animals on the land.
There was then roughly a four-year period with no evidence of horses before the certificate application was made on 16th June 2023.
The council treated that gap as important. The Inspector did too, but reached a different conclusion. In the context of the long history and the explanation for the interruption, he found that the established lawful use had become dormant rather than abandoned.
The appeal was allowed on 22nd September 2026.
The certificate says “keeping of horses”
The Inspector also tightened the description of the use. “Equestrian use” was considered too specific because it can imply riding activity. The planning use established by the evidence was simply the keeping of horses.
The certificate therefore records “Keeping of horses” at Sunny Bank and states that the use had subsisted continuously for more than ten years, gained immunity from enforcement action and had not subsequently been abandoned.
The decision does not mean any long period of non-use is harmless. Its force lies in the history, the accepted evidence and the reason the activity stopped.
See Planning Geek’s lawful development certificate guide and abandonment of use guide and the locally hosted appeal decision, or see the Planning Inspectorate appeal record.
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