[2025] UKUT 280 (LC)

This appeal relates to 12 greenfield sites, one at Ewefields Farm, Chesterton and others elsewhere, where the appellant has had ECA pursuant to Code agreements for some years. In the case of each site a notice has been served under paragraph 33 of the Code requiring that the existing agreement be terminated and a new agreement entered. The validity of that notice has not been in dispute, but references were made to the FTT under paragraph 33(5) of the Code seeking orders under paragraph 34 in relation to each of the sites. The 12 references were heard together by the FTT and a single decision issued, requiring the parties to enter new leases in a standard form (with some site-specific variations) and determining the terms of the leases save insofar as they were agreed. There are no site-specific issues in the appeal and I refer throughout to “the new lease” in standard form although there will be 12 new leases.

The appeal is about whether the new lease should give the appellant the right to share with its customers not only its physical infrastructure but also the sites and its rights under the agreements – an issue that has already been the subject of more than one Upper Tribunal decision in relation to other sites. The appellant says that the sharing rights granted to it by the FTT were too restrictive, and it appeals with permission granted by the Tribunal. The respondent has asked for permission to cross-appeal on a number of issues and the Tribunal has directed that that application be heard on a rolled-up basis along with the appeal.