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Ivy Legal's Planning Enforcement Newsletter August 2019
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Ivy Legal Limited is a law firm offering a revolutionary and simple approach to planning enforcement.

We do everything related to planning enforcement which is traditionally done by planning enforcement officers and solicitors. We work on a project basis, can assist with individual cases or advice. 

 


ENFORCE
Dear Sir/Madam,

Apparently Councils are serving fewer enforcement notices than in the past 22 years. My guess is that this is mainly due to 1. increased legal complexity in planning enforcement  2. local authority budget cuts and 3. shortage of suitably qualified and experienced officers.

In one respect at least, central Government are trying to address the problem by providing funding to 40 local authorities to tackle green belt planning enforcement problems. A drop in the ocean, but it all helps. 

On the training front, we try to do our bit with speaking at a number of conferences over the course of the next few months. We will also host our ever popular Introduction to Planning Enforcement course next month.

As for the increased legal complexity, we are not complaining too much. However, perhaps it is time to turn our attention to lobbying for small changes to simplify planning law? 

 
Izindi Visagie 
                     izindi@ivylegal.co.uk 
Training courses and conferences
Policy and performance
  • Forty Councils have each received a funding offer of £50,000 to tackle planning breaches in the green belt.  Planning Resource Article
 
  • The latest figures show that Councils are serving fewer enforcement notices than in the past 22 years. Compared with 5,335 notices issued in 1996/7, the first year that records began, only 3,867 notices were issued in 2018/19. Planning Resource Article
 
  • Performance figures released show the 20 highest financial penalties for breaches of enforcement notices between January and June 2019. Southwark Council leads with total penalty, including POCA, fine and costs of £1,164,601 following by Ealing Council which secured a total penalty of £523,747. Planning Resource Article
 

Prosecutions /POCA
  •  Newark and Sherwood District Council prosecuted a classic car lover for breaching an enforcement notice. He had permission to keep up to 25 vehicles on the land but, on several occasions,  officers found over 100 vehicles. On one inspection the officer counted 230 vehicles.  The owner was fined £2,500 in Nottingham Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay the Council’s costs of £2,834. Article
 
  • A Welsh homeowner who installed wheels on his garage to make it moveable and argued it was not development had his prosecution for failure to comply with an enforcement notice thrown out on appeal as an abuse of process.  It appears that a council planning enforcement officer had suggested this route to the homeowner and this fact was not properly disclosed during the original prosecution.  Article
 
  • In Burnley, a man was fined £2,500 for breaching a tree preservation order.  Article
 

Enforcement Appeals

 
  • A Planning Inspector quashed an enforcement notice issued by Somerset Council because it was not served on all parties with an interest in the land.  Substantial prejudice had been caused as a result. A factor was the lack of a PCN being issued before issuing the enforcement notice.  Planning Resource Article and appeal decision.
 
  • A property owner lost his appeal against an enforcement notice issued against an extension built without the requisite planning permission. The Planning Inspector found that it harmed the character and appearance of the area. St Albans City and District Council issued the enforcement notice in April 2018. Article
 
  • Doncaster Council has successfully defended an enforcement notice issued against unauthorised motor sports and outdoor activities at a disused quarry site near Blaxton. The activities were posing a threat to protected species. Article
 
  • A Planning Inspector has dismissed a Welsh homeowner’s appeal against a s215 amenity notice finding that the ivy covering the walls of the house has been allowed to grow to such an extent so as to give the house an unkempt and abandoned appearance, affecting the amenity value of the surrounding area. Appeal decision. Note that in England s215 appeals are dealt with by the Magistrates’ court.
 
  • A householder who raised his garden at his property by up to 1.6 metres in an attempt to create a levelled area has lost his appeal. The Inspector found that the retaining walls were integral to the engineering operations to raise the ground levels and were therefore, taken as a whole, not permitted development. Planning Resource Article  
 
  • Timber decking installed on a flat roof was deemed development, applying the usual tests of size, permanence and degree of attachment.  Article
 
  • An enforcement notice issued on a Bristol Christmas-tree business has been upheld.  The inspector found that the barn was not an implementation of an agricultural permission as most of the trees were bought-in for resale rather than being grown.  As such the use of the barn was retail rather than agricultural.  Article
 
  • A seven storey RIBA award winning office and residential building in Clerkenwell, London was saved on a ground (a) appeal against an enforcement notice.  The council said it was not built to plans and ordered its removal but an inspector found in its favour when considering the planning balance.  Article
 

Other Enforcement Matters/ Injunctions

 
  • Barnet council issued a completion notice against a half-built office/residential building.  The rarely used power made headlines.  Planning Resource Article
 
  • The government of the Indian state of Maharashtra is appealing against Camden Council’s enforcement notice against a house was converted into a museum without planning permission. Retrospective planning permission was refused and the enforcement inquiry is due to be heard next month. Article  
 
  • Katie Price has been issued with a temporary stop notice. Horsham Council discovered that engineering operations to raise land levels, a new entrance and renovation works started at her property in West Susses without the requisite planning permission. Article
 
  • Cornwall Council is considering enforcement action against a multi-use games area built 16 metres from the nearest dwellinghouse was refused planning permission.  The holiday park representative thought it was permitted development. Article
 
  • Hackney Council is investigating further structures built as part of an architectural competition on the roof of The Art House in London. One of the structures were subject to enforcement action which was upheld on appeal in March 2017. The Inspector found that the corrugated metal shed was an “incongruous roof-top appendage”. Article  
 
  • East Suffolk Council investigates the lawfulness of a pay and display car park after it received complaints about harsh parking charges. Article
 
  • Hertsmere Borough Council issued an enforcement notice against an ongoing development at a St Albans Road site. The developer has appealed the notice which requires removal of fencing, hardstanding, commercial machinery and other construction related materials. Article
 
  • Cornwall Council gives an insight of how they tackle and help Travellers. Article
 
  • Homeowners who built their house 2m higher than their planning permission allows now faces enforcement action. Article
 
  • A homeowner in Telford who argued that his home was required for agricultural purposes didn’t convince council enforcement officers who ordered it removed.  Article
 
  • A cyclist’s café and workshop in Maidenhead has been injuncted to require it to discourage cyclists from meeting there before or after their morning rides.  Permission was granted on appeal for café and workshop use but refused for a “cyclists meet” due to the planning harms associated with lycra-wearers, in particular their propensity to talk loudly about cycling early on Sunday mornings.  Article
 
  • Wokingham BC commissioned an independent assessor to look at its handling of the long-running Hare Hatch garden centre enforcement case, to see whether it had been heavy-handed.  The assessor largely upheld the council’s actions.  Article
 
  • Yorkshire cat-lovers who built a cat play area on the front of their house and lost an appeal for its retention have now received an enforcement notice from Kirkless council.  Article
 
  • A Newport woman whose trees were removed by the council after she failed to comply with a tidy-up notice built a 3m wall instead.  She has been refused retrospective planning permission and an enforcement notice is on the way.  Article
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This newsletter is not legal advice. The content of this newsletter has been collected from publicly available sources and Ivy Legal does not accept any liability for reliance on the information contained in it. 

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