Building preservation notice for the farmhouse in 1988, or the council's record of deciding not to serve one

Between the Cadw resurvey visit of 29 July 1988 and the refusal to spot-list on 5 December 1988, the farmhouse (Parcel A, the house) was an unlisted building whose interest had been put to the Secretary of State. Section 58 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 let the local planning authority protect such a building at once, for six months, by serving a building preservation notice 'on the owner and occupier of the building'. The notice had to state that the authority had asked the Secretary of State to consider listing it. If one was served and the Secretary of State then declined to list, s.58(5)(a) required the authority to 'forthwith give notice of the Secretary of State's decision to the owner and occupier'. So if a notice was served there should be two papers, each served on the occupier as well as the registered proprietor: the notice itself and the later notice of the decision. If none was served, the council's planning file or committee papers for late 1988 are where a decision not to use the power would be written down. Against: the power was discretionary and nothing required a record of a decision not to use it; a notice could be costly for the authority if the building was not then listed, which made councils cautious; and once the Secretary of State had declined to list on 5 December, a notice would have ended at once. Section 58 is read here as enacted in 1971; amendments up to 1988, and whether the county or the district council held the power for this building, are not checked.

Who should hold it: Vale of Glamorgan Council (planning records of the former borough council, 1988), and South Glamorgan County Council papers at Glamorgan Archives; the occupier's own papers if a notice was served. Not yet searched.

Date of the record: 29 Jul - 6 Dec 1988