A Herefordshire car workshop says it has ignored a planning condition for over ten years – meaning no action can be taken against it.

Mr A Morgan of Herefordshire Volvo Specialists at Pomona Garage, Kings Acre west of Hereford has applied for a lawful development certificate (application 240092) to ensure the garage can continue in lawful use.

A letter with the application from his agent explains that the original planning permission for the garage contained a condition that it was to be “only for the benefit” of the then applicant, Ned Potter Motor Vehicle Services.

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“Although Ned Potter Ltd is still the current owner, his business migrated to Beech Business Park [off Tillington Road] fully in 2007, whereupon Gerry Doverman Mercedes took a lease on the building until he moved his business to Whitestone in 2013,” the application explains.

“Hereford Volvo Specialists have been using the building since then for the same use.”

The firm also wants confirmation that its use of a later extension to the building is also lawful. In this case too, “the breach of condition began more than ten years before the date of this application”, it says.

The original applications to build the garage do not appear to be hosted on Herefordshire Council’s website, whose planning archive goes back to 1997. The case numbers suggest they were made in 1988, and 1993 for the extension.

Planning breaches are not subject to enforcement – that is, the owner will not be made to put them right – if the breach is acknowledged by the planning authority to have happened more than ten years ago.

The application can be commented on until February 7.