5. What enforcement action can the council take?
Where no breach of planning control has occurred, the complainant and land owner / occupier will be notified of this in writing with a clear explanation of how this decision has been reached.
Where a breach has occurred, the Enforcement Officer will:
- Inspect the site to establish matters of fact and where a breach of a priority 1 nature is identified advise those responsible to stop all work and/or cease all unauthorised uses
- If possible, attempt to resolve the matter informally through negotiation
- Where appropriate, invite a retrospective Planning Application or application for a Certificate of Lawful Use or Development Certificate.
The complainant will be informed in writing of the outcome, within five working days of the decision being reached.
Where a retrospective application is not received, or is received and refused permission, the Council will consider whether it is expedient to take formal enforcement action. This will depend on the nature of the breach and the level of harm caused by the breach. Enforcement action will be taken where:
- The breach of control is causing sufficient harm to justify it
- There is no realistic alternative to the breach being made acceptable through negotiation or the submission of a retrospective planning application; and
If a retrospective planning application has been refused or negotiation has failed, we have a range of formal enforcement powers that can be used to remedy the harm caused by a breach of control. However, any enforcement action that is taken by us has to be proportionate to both the scale of the breach of planning control and to the level of harm that is being (or could be) caused.
It must also be born in mind that a breach of planning control is in most cases not a criminal offence and that the main purpose of planning enforcement is to remedy the harm rather than to punish the perpetrator.
The cause of good planning is not served by the pursuit of unimportant breaches of control but not to take action, where it is clearly necessary, can be considered to be maladministration.
Enforcement action will not be taken solely to resolve planning issues of an essentially private nature where there is limited public impact, for example, disputes between adjacent landowners.