[2024] UKUT 197 (LC)

Fecha: 10-Jul-2024

The issues

The issues

13.

The FTT took the unusual decision in this case not only to refuse the 2023 14% RPI increase proposed by Wyldecrest but to reduce the pitch fees to the level they had been before the previous 6% increase which had taken effect by agreement in January 2022. The combined effect of its decision was that with effect from 1 January 2023 the occupiers’ pitch fees were approximately 20% lower than they would have been if the presumption of an RPI increase had been applied in the usual way.

14.

Wyldecrest sought the FTT’s permission to appeal, relying on rather discursive grounds of appeal. The FTT summarised what it took to be the main points of the application and granted permission on three of them. There was some mismatch between the FTT’s summary and the grounds which Wyldecrest wanted to argue, but the issues focussed on by Mr Payne, who appeared on behalf of Wyldecrest at the appeal, were the following:

The extent to which the FTT was entitled to reduce the pitch fee below the level which had been agreed for 2022.

Whether the FTT had been entitled to treat the previous “pristine” state of the Park as the relevant point of reference when considering whether there had been a deterioration in its condition for the purpose of paragraph 18(1)(aa).

Whether the reduction in the pitch fee could be reversed if, in future, the condition of the Park improved.