The Process
a) Recording and acknowledgement
Enforcement complaints, unlike planning application responses, are confidential and will not be discharged to anyone.
The details of your complaint will be entered into a computer database and an Officer will then be assigned to deal with it (the 'case officer'). We will also write to you within two working days to acknowledge receipt of your complaint.
All complaints are prioritised in accordance with an agreed weighting system and according to the severity of the harm being caused to the environment by the alleged breach of planning control.
b) Site visit
The case officer will visit the site, between one and fourteen working days of you making your complaint, to assess whether a breach has taken place.
c) If a breach has not taken place
If a breach has not been found, you will receive a letter informing you of our findings and that no further action will be taken.
d) If a breach has taken place
If a breach has taken place, we will write to the following people:
- Yourself (the complainant).
- The person carrying out the breach (the offender).
- Any other interested parties.
- Any other Council departments (where necessary).
e) Steps to remedy the breach
The offender will be told what must be done to remedy the situation. This will usually be one of the following:
- To cease the unauthorised use of the land.
- To cease the unauthorised development.
- To submit a retrospective planning application for our consideration.
The submission of a planning application will be recommended if the granting of planning permission/consent would be likely to remedy the breach.
The offender will be given a specified amount of time to remedy the breach.
If the breach has not ceased after the expiry of a reasonable given period, the Council may proceed to serve a formal legal notice (for example an Enforcement Notice) requiring the breach to be remedied. You will be kept informed of what will happen next.
If the breach consists of either of the following, then an Enforcement Notice may only be served within four years of the date of the original breach:
- Building operations.
- Change of use of a building to a single dwelling.
A Notice may only be served within ten years of a breach for any other type of activity/development or for non-compliance with a condition imposed on a planning permission.
It is therefore important that we are informed at the time development is occurring and not months after the event.
