[2024] UKUT 232 (LC)

Before I look at the detail of the submissions and evidence it is useful at this stage to understand the substance of the sale of land in 2008 to Taylor Wimpey and the rights reserved in the sale. The land, which was triangular in shape and sold for £800,000, now forms a part of a large residential development site stretching from the railway line in the south as far as Finkley Road in the north, a distance of about 0.5 miles. The development extends a similar distance on an east/west axis. The spine road which now runs through the development and connects to North Road at the entrance to the farm attraction is named Finkley Farm Road. Taylor Wimpey have been very active in developing the eastern side of Andover and have options on the land to the east and north of the northern part of the farm and if this land is developed the farm would find itself largely surrounded by housing in contrast to its previously rural position.

In completing the transaction Taylor Wimpey acquired certain rights over the land retained by the farm. The most significant of these rights is the right to carry out the ‘Buyer’s Works’ as provided by clause 27 of the contract. This clause gave Taylor Wimpey the right, for a period of 20 years and after serving notice on the farm, to build an access road through the northern part of the farm to reach the land to the east. The contract also provided for Taylor Wimpey to acquire the land required for such an access. The exact position of the road is not prescribed by the contract. It would start at the ‘stub’ access shown on the plan above and end at any point between A and B on the eastern boundary.

The Taylor Wimpey right was subject to conditions intended to protect the farm from the disruption that building the access road would cause. These included six months’ notice of the works, liaison to avoid disruption, the avoidance, so far as reasonably practicable, of any substantial works between 15 March and 31 October in any year and “reasonable and commercially sensible endeavours” to route the access as close to the southern boundary of the northern part of the farm, “as is reasonably practicable in the circumstances”. In practice this would mean building the road as close to the railway embankment as possible, notwithstanding that the starting point would be the existing stub access. If the access were constructed Taylor Wimpey would provide land of an equivalent acreage to that sterilised by the works, and such land would be contiguous with the existing boundary of the farm. It is worth noting that following the vacation of the land owned by Taylor Wimpey the hereditament changed materially in terms of size and configuration between the antecedent valuation date (AVD) and the material day. The land acquired by Taylor Wimpey was largely used as grazing although part was used as a track for pedal powered go-karts. Mr Waters said at the hearing that works to paths and fencing within the retained farm attraction were necessary as a consequence of the sale of the land.