[2024] UKUT 00146 (LC)

The reference land had frontage to the A11, High Street, with a rear return frontage to Sugar House Lane in Stratford, East London. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a short distance to the north, and Stratford town centre is to the north-east. The reference land formed part of the wider Sugar House Lane area, comprising a large triangle of land to the south of High Street Stratford, east/north of the River Lea Navigation (Stanstead Mill Stream) and west of the Three Mills Wall River. It is within the Sugar House Lane Conservation Area.

The reference land has since been cleared and developed, but at the valuation date 117 High Street comprised a three-storey 1930’s building, with a café on the ground floor and residential accommodation above. 119-121 High Street was a 2-3 storey building, with a single storey rear element. It was most recently used as a nightclub with ancillary staff accommodation on the upper floors.

While both buildings lay within the Conservation Area, neither was listed. A large brick chimney to the rear of 117 High Street was referred to as a ‘chimney of note’.

An extract from the CPO Order Plan is shown below, with the reference land noted as plot 44. Sugar House Lane runs down the eastern side of plots 44 and 45.

It is the appellant’s case that, but for the CPO, he would have developed the reference land in conjunction with the owners of plot 45, to the south. Plot 45 comprised a large industrial building and outbuildings surrounded by areas of hardstanding. It was used as part of a tool hire storage facility.

The application for a CAAD encompassed both sites, and we refer them together as ‘the appeal site’, which has an agreed site area of 2,656 sqm, on which the buildings comprised a gross internal area of 1,140 sqm.