[2006] EWLands ACQ 120(28 April 2006. The claimant in this reference seeks compensation for the compulsory acquisition of about 18 acres of land forming part of the Essex County Showground at Great Leighs in Essex. The land was acquired for the purpose of constructing the Great Leighs bypass. Land adjacent to the showground that had been used for car parking in connection with the show was sold in June 1990. The subject land vested in the acquiring authority on 8 December 2000, and this is the valuation date. At the time of the hearing, in January and February 2006, earthmoving works preparatory to the construction of an all-weather horse racing. Planning permission for this development had been granted in September 2004. The case for the claimant is that at the valuation date planning permission existed that would have enabled a racecourse to be laid out on the showground and that, in the no-scheme world at that date, the planning permission that is now being implemented could reasonably have been expected to be granted. Compensation for the land taken, it is said, should be assessed on the basis of these actual and assumed permissions. "Held": there was insufficient evidence to conclude that at the valuation date a racecourse proposal held out any prospect of commercial success or that a case on need could have been made out.