The Kafkaesque battle of a DIY store in Lewisham

From the beginning, the case of KJ Building Supplies has unfolded in a Kafkaesque manner. It began with a planning contravention notice issued seven years ago. It demanded that local DIY shopkeeper, Kevin Bottomley (pictured), aka “KJ,” cease various activities related to his builders’ merchants. A busy store on the busy A20. 

Kevin had, in fact, sold the shop to his young charge Will Buckle (pictured). However, due to a series of errors and questionable decisions made by planning enforcement officers, Will’s dreams for the future of the store quickly descended into madness. 

Enforcement overreach

Back in June 2016, following a sole complaint, the then enforcement officer Janet Hurst initially determined that the land on which a metal container sat, and which had been introduced that year by Kevin, was not the only thing in breach of planning.

Hurst included the land too, even though it had been used that way for many years. In fact, the description of the breach would notably change over time, with devastating consequences for KJ Building Supplies and for its owners.

The planning application

In 2017, a planning application submitted on behalf of KJ Building Supplies was only actually initiated at the council's invitation. However, this application focused solely on retaining an "existing” metal storage unit to the side of the shop. Then, this seemingly straightforward request took a convoluted path.

Curiously, the completed planning form simply asked to retain the ‘Existing storage unit to the side.’ While the planning officer Russell Brown recorded DC/17/102699 “A retrospective application for the use of the land on the east side… for a builders yard (Sui Generis)…” 

The term "sui generis," Latin for "of its own kind," was introduced to assess whether this unique use of land as a builders’ yard, including a storage container, aligned with existing land use classifications. The officers also claimed that it was in a conservation area, which it wasn’t.

The planning application was refused under delegated powers held by Brown. Since departed from the council. Former head of planning Emma Talbot wrote, “The use of the site as a (sic) open builders' yard with storage container would, by reason of the design and temporary nature of the storage container be unsuitable and inappropriate on a prominent route in the Brockley Conservation Area.”

The land alongside K J Building Supplies wasn’t actually “in” the Conservation Area. It was not even a builders’ yard. Shoppers came. They went.  The end.

(Emma Talbot was somewhat reluctant to present her qualifications to us. She was catapulted through the ranks to the top planning job following the walkout of former head John Miller, who saw through the part-shambolic Lewisham Gateway project. Talbot has since left Lewisham to head up regeneration and development in Harrow, following in the footsteps of her previous Lewisham maternity minder, Viv Evans, who is now chief planning officer… in Harrow.)

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