In 1935 London's regional planners proposed the Metropolitan Green Belt and the 1947 Town and Country PlanningAct encouraged local authorities to protect the land around towns and cities from building.
The prosecutions were pursued privately by the council under Section 178 of the Town and Country PlanningAct in which it as an "offence to wilfully obstruct" a local planning authority taking enforcement action.
The justices ruled that there had been no change of use within the section of the Town and Country PlanningAct, which imposes a four-year time limit for taking enforcement action against breaches of planning control.