The following document details the process of planning enforcement - Planning enforcement - have you got permission?
Report an alleged breach of planning control or make an online enforcement planning enquiry.
For enforcement appeals
Some development is carried out without the benefit of Planning Permission or other relevant associated consents, such as Listed Building Consent. The Enforcement Section investigates such breaches of planning control and instigates the necessary action to put the breach right. Such unauthorised developments can take many forms from unauthorised advertisements, minor householder developments and unauthorised uses of land, to problems on major development sites and unauthorised advertisements.
The council will always investigate where a breach occurs and will normally give the owner or person carrying out the works the opportunity to rectify the matter informally. This can be either by the submission of a planning application or other related applications to resolve the matter, or by ceasing the activity or removing or modifying the unauthorised works. In some cases the breach is so minor or of so little consequence, that no further action will be taken.
The council will always try and resolve breaches of planning control without recourse to formal powers; however, where such negotiations fail it will always consider whether it is expedient to take Enforcement Action and what type of action it is reasonable to take.
The remedies available to the Council include:-
Enforcement Notice
This is a formal Notice used to bring about the cessation of an activity on land or secure removal of unauthorised development. It requires specific steps to be taken within a specified time limit to remedy the breach. There is a right of appeal on specified grounds to an Enforcement Notice, which will be heard by an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State. If an Enforcement Notice is not appealed against, or is upheld at appeal then the council has the power to bring prosecution proceedings if the notice is not complied with within the specified time limits.
Waste Land Notice
- A Notice can be served by the Authority requiring land to be tidied, pursuant to Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
- The recipient has a right of appeal to the Magistrates Court against issue of the Notice.
- Failure to comply with the Notice within the required time scales constitutes an offence, and may result in prosecution.
Stop Notice
If the council feels it necessary, having served an Enforcement Notice, to ensure that a use or activity stops as soon as possible, then it can serve a Stop Notice. Such action will only be taken where significant adverse effects are being caused or the activity would result in long term damage to the environment by a development and immediate action is necessary.
Breach of Condition Notice
This form of Notice is used where the breach involves non-compliance with a condition on a planning application; for example, the failure to provide a landscaping scheme as required by a condition. There is no right of appeal against a Breach of Condition Notice, so this can be a very effective form of action.
A right of appeal, however, exists against the condition(s), which is effective for three months from the planning decision being issued.
Planning Contravention Notice
This form of Notice gives the council power to obtain information about suspected breaches of planning control, and to endeavour to secure the co-operation of the alleged offender. The Notice may require the person on whom it is served to give information as to:-
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Any operations being carried out on the land, any use of the land and any other activities being carried out on the land; and
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Any matter relating to the conditions or limitations subject to which any planning permission in respect of the land has been granted.
