In this case, following refusal of planning permission, a landowner served a purchase notice requiring the local planning authority to buy his land on the ground that it was incapable of reasonably beneficial use. The original notice contained several errors and the owner served three more notices in attempts to ensure the validity of the purchase notice.

The Secretary of State declined to confirm the fourth notice on the basis that the land was still usable. The owner claimed deemed confirmation of the earlier purchase notices on the ground that no decisions had been made on them within the statutory time limit.

The Court of Appeal held that, viewed objectively, the owner had withdrawn each of the earlier notices when he served the later ones. The fourth notice was the only one still in existence and there could be no deemed confirmation of the earlier notices.

This case illustrates the issues that must be considered where a party seeks to correct errors made in a statutory notice.