Background / Facts

• In 2000 you buy 53 acres of land from your neighbour and move into a house on the land.  Your neighbour retains the adjoining land of about an acre. 
• On that adjoining land there is a natural spring water well.  In 1996 your neighbour leased the adjoining land giving the tenant a right of way over the land which you have now bought.  The purpose of the right of way included access to the water bottling facility which the tenant was starting.  Access over the right of way from the adjoining land to the main road had to include access by lorries.
• The first relevant planning permission for the water bottling operation on the adjoining land was granted on 30 April 1996 and contained a condition restricting the hours of access for deliveries to the premises.  The permission also contained a condition as to the visibility splay at the junction with the main road.  The reason was “highway safety”.  A further temporary permission was granted in 2002 with the same conditions as to hours of deliveries and visibility splay.  A third further temporary planning permission was granted in 2005 but with no condition as to a visibility splay.  In January 2004 a further temporary permission was refused for the reasons mentioned below.  A final short and temporary planning permission was granted in August 2005 and expiring in February 2006 for the purpose of enabling a winding down of the water bottling operation.  In 2005 planning permission for use of the adjoining land as offices with ancillary storage was refused solely on the grounds of highway / visibility grounds.
• In about 2001 you had started putting in fencing and the planting of shrubs on the land which forms part of what was the visibility splay.  The consequence of this is that the Planning Inspector in his decision in 2004 refusing a further temporary planning permission concluded that “on the basis of existing sight lines I consider use of this access is potentially dangerous ….. I understand that there is no scope to improve the sight line to a satisfactory standard as [your neighbour] has no control over the necessary land”.
  The Action / The Court Proceedings
  Your neighbour has now taken proceedings against you claiming that your works of fencing and the planting of shrubs has interfered with the visibility splay and you have derogated from the grant of the right of way, granted in 2000.  Your neighbour is claiming a mandatory injunction requiring you to restore the splay and damages.