Wilkinson, David

David Wilkinson was convicted in February 1994 of failing to comply with an amended section 215 notice under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Mr Wilkinson received a £400 fine and was ordered to pay £600 in costs.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in December 2004.

Mr Wilkinson had been served with a notice by his local authority requiring him “to clear disused vehicles, trailers and machinery and the removal of all soil, timber, and pallets brought on to the land to abate the injury caused to the amenity of the area.”

He appealed this notice to a bench of magistrates which ordered the notice be amended to: “The site should be cleared to an acceptable level of tidiness which said level is to be determined by the Council”.

The council prosecuted Mr Wilkinson for failure to comply with the amended notice.

The CCRC referred the conviction in September 2005 on the basis that the amended notice – being more onerous than the original notice – did not comply with the terms of section 217 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and was, therefore, unenforceable.

The CCRC concluded that the prosecution had amounted to an abuse of process on the council’s part.

The Crown Court quashed the conviction in November 2006.