Dunoon Developments Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment and Poole Borough Council, 65 P & CR 101
Dunoon planning condition case is an important Court of Appeal authority on whether wording which limits the authorised use of premises also removes permitted development rights.
The court held that the particular condition did not exclude the development order. Saying that a use was “limited to” specified activities was not enough, in its context, to prevent changes otherwise permitted by the GDO.
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- Neutral citation
- 65 P & CR 101; [1992] JPL 936; 2 PLR 128
- Court
- Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
- Judgment date
- 18th February 1992
- Judge
- The Vice-Chancellor, Taylor LJ and Farquharson LJ
- Case number
- 92/0117
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A car showroom became an indoor market
The case concerned premises in Poole originally permitted for offices, showroom, car sales, servicing and maintenance. A condition stated that the use should be limited to the display, sale and storage of new and used cars, together with associated administrative and vehicle-preparation activities.
After Dunoon Developments acquired the site it opened an indoor market. The local authority served an enforcement notice, arguing that the market use breached the condition.
The condition did not exclude the development order
The key issue was whether the wording of the condition prevented Dunoon relying on a change of use which was otherwise permitted by the development order.
The Court of Appeal held that it did not. The condition defined and limited the use granted by the permission, but its wording did not clearly go further and exclude the separate permission operating through the development order.
Farquharson LJ contrasted the word “limited” with more emphatic wording found in other cases, such as a prohibition on use “for no other purpose”.
Why Dunoon still matters
Dunoon does not establish that conditions can never remove permitted development rights. Its importance is the distinction between defining what a planning permission itself authorises and clearly excluding rights which arise independently under the GPDO.
The later Court of Appeal judgment in Dunnett Investments drew directly on Dunoon when explaining that an exclusion can be express or implied, but the condition read in its full context must clearly show the necessary intention.
The 2026 Delamere Class Q appeal applied the same principle to a condition restricting an agricultural building.
Sources
The Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 18th February 1992 and is reported at 65 P & CR 101, [1992] JPL 936 and 2 PLR 128. An online transcript is indexed by vLex. The relevant reasoning is also reproduced and discussed in the later Dunnett judgment held in the Planning Geek library.
A complete local copy of the Dunoon judgment has not yet been identified, so Planning Geek is not presenting a case note or extract as though it were the full judgment.
Dunoon Case Law Page Updated: 26th September 2026