Planners refuse application to keep firearms and shotguns in shipping container at Sutton Crosses, near Long Sutton
Plans to continue storing firearms in a shipping container have been refused.
Applicant John Heading had hoped to receive a document to prove keeping the guns and ammunition at a site in Sutton Crosses was legal.
However, South Holland District Council declined his request, arguing Mr Heading was unable to prove he had been using the site continually to house the firearms for the past decade.
The 10-year rule states that if a development has been in place uninterrupted for that time period without enforcement action it may be considered lawful.
The planning officer’s report stated Mr Heading provided two photos showing firearm storage within a shipping container, adding ‘the photos are not date stamped or related to a particular year’.
An external photo of the storage unit and gates, which were not time stamped, plus images of a firearms book and a certificate of firearms dealer registration were also among the evidence provided.
“Case law has established that in order to become immune from enforcement action and therefore lawful, the use being applied for must be continuous for a period of at least 10 years,” the report concluded.
“On the balance of probabilities the case is not proven that the use applied for was not continuous… photographs are not time stamped or continuous.
“The planning history conflicts with the accounts of a continuous use, as does records from council tax and business rates. The evidence does not clearly show a continuous use of two storage units with no breaks and as such the lawfulness of the use has not been proven.”
Planning officers also used Google Earth in a bid to establish how long the plot had been in existence.
“There is insufficient evidence of photographic records to substantiate a continuous use of that particular storage unit on site for 10 years,” it concluded.
Sutton Crosses is comprised of groups of dwellings and buildings spread out along rural lanes to the south side of Long Sutton, separated from it by the A17.
The application related to a storage facility on a fenced area of land on Gimmel's Gate - formerly part of a garden of an adjoining property - which is adjacent to other dwellings and buildings.
The report added: “One of the storage containers is labelled as a firearms store, situated along the eastern boundary of the site. The other container is labelled as a cartridge store.”
Submitted plans indicate the dimensions of the shipping container is 2.5mx2.5m, while the other storage unit is indicated to be 8.5mx9.5m, made of timber and profile steel with a concrete floor.”