Guide to planning enforcement

We receive a large number of complaints every year. Normally we give priority to those cases where the greatest harm is potentially being caused:

Priority 1 - High

• A serious threat to public health and /or safety and amenity, such as a development creating severe pollution problems, or a serious traffic hazard, or the storage of hazardous substances
• Permanent damage to the environment such as unauthorised work to or demolition of a listed building, breaches of conservation controls such as demolition of buildings and structures and Article 4 Directions, unauthorised work to or felling of a protected tree.

Priority 2 - Medium

• Unauthorised and unacceptable development in the Green Belt
• Unauthorised development/uses causing nuisance to neighbouring uses through noise, smells, congestion, etc.
• Breaches of conditions attached to a planning permission where they are detrimental to residential amenity and/or are causing nuisance to neighbouring uses through noise, smells, congestion, etc.

Priority 3 - Low

• Disputes between neighbours which relate to householder or similar development, and where there is limited public impact (for example the erection of a fence or the construction of a shed or a greenhouse)
• The unauthorised display of an advertisement.

Officers will aim to inspect sites within the following timescales:

Information on the site address, the type of works / use being undertaken, when it started / takes place and how it is causing harm is the minimum amount of information required to properly investigate a complaint. We do not not investigate anonymous complaints.