A servient tenement owner cannot refuse consent to a dominant owner's development application merely because the development will increase the financial burden of maintaining the servient tenement, where the terms of the easement grant are broad and unqualified. Following Westfield Management Ltd v Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd, extrinsic evidence other than the physical characteristics of the tenements is inadmissible to construe a registered easement. The meaning of 'lawful reason' for refusing consent includes cases where the proposed user would be excessive (and thus a trespass), but does not extend to the financial consequences of lawful use.
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