Training courses and conferences

• RTPI training presents Enforcement of planning decisions – London which will take place on 3 September 2019.
• The National Association of Planning Enforcement (NAPE) Annual Conference on 6 November 2019 will take place in Peterborough.
• We still have a few places on our Introduction to Planning Enforcement course on 20 September 2019.

Policy and performance

• Performance figures show the 50 councils that issued the most enforcement notices in 2018/19  and those councils that issued none. Planning Resource Article
• Thanet Council is developing an action plan to tackle the growing number of unauthorised Traveller encampments in the district.  The number of unauthorised encampments rose from two in 2013 to 55 in 2018. Article

Planning Court/High Court

• High Court found that a planning inspector had erred in an enforcement appeal decision by failing to have regard to and to address submissions by the London Borough of Brent that a material change of use by way of intensification had occurred.  Judgment
• In this Judgment, High Court confirms well established law that private citizens cannot enforce breach of planning law against each other.
• A neighbouring resident successfully challenged an Inspector’s enforcement appeal decision to quash Brent Council’s enforcement notice and grant planning permission to continue the use of a former builder’s yard as a place of worship. The international charity, Islamic Link, had a history of breaching planning controls and owned properties on either side of the claimant. The use was causing food waste and packaging spilling into the claimant’s garden, parking problems, noise and light pollution from floodlighting. Mrs Justice Lang quashed the inspector’s decision, finding it defective and concluding that the inspector had failed to properly consider "the highly contentious planning issues which arose in respect of the entire appeal site." Planning Resource Article

Prosecutions /POCA

• A Council tenant who rented out his studio flat in Victoria for short term accommodation since 2013 has been prosecuted.  Westminster City Council discovered that he was using a fake identity, but anti-fraud software linked him to the Airbnb account.  He was ordered to pay a confiscation order of £100,974. Article
• Ipswich Borough Council prosecuted a homeowner that carried out unauthorised alterations to his Grade II listed property.  Pleading guilty of for the offences, he was fined £20,000 and almost as much in costs. The offences took place between October 1994 and November 2017. Article
• Several factors which contribute to seemingly random fines imposed by courts against ‘rogue landlords’. Article

Direct Action

• A man who built a bungalow without planning permission saw it demolished after a failed appeal against Durham County Council’s enforcement notice, an injunction order and after losing a number of legal challenges. The council executed their powers to take direct action to secure compliance with the enforcement notice. Article

Enforcement Appeals

• A Planning Inspector quashed a Surrey authority’s enforcement notice issued against the use of land as a hospital staff car park after finding little evidence that the use added to traffic congestion levels at peak times. Full costs were awarded in favour of the appellant as the Council acted unreasonably.  In deciding to take enforcement action the council did not carry out its own assessment of impact nor had it assessed expediency given the importance of the car park to the operation of the hospital.  Planning Resource Article
• A planning inspector allowed an enforcement appeal and granted planning permission to retain an outbuilding in the back garden of the semi-detached dwelling in Kent, in the green belt. The inspector was not persuaded that its use as a hair and beauty salon for three days per week changed the primary character of the land as a dwelling and further found that the building was a modest addition that would not be inappropriate development. Planning Resource Article
• Bath and North East Somerset Council wins it enforcement appeal upholding an enforcement notice requiring a commercial holiday let to cease operating. The holiday let has caused harm to residential amenity in terms of an increase in noise, disturbance and traffic. Article

Other Enforcement Matters/ Injunctions

• Barnet Council has issued its first completion notice giving the owner of an unfinished breeze block shell to finish the building by June 2020. Building works started in 2013 but came to a halt. The building remained unfinished despite an amended design being allowed on appeal in 2015. Article 
• A retired police officer faces potential enforcement action if she loses her appeal against Kirklees Council’s refusal to grant retrospective planning permission for her ‘catio’. She built a “big cat” enclosure for her moggies to play in safely, away from the road. Article
• Project manager for the royal household wrote to the enforcement team at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to advise of the part retrospective planning application submitted for material changes to elements of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s planning permission for landscaping at Frogmore Cottage. Details of the scheme are not made public for security reasons. Article
• A ward councillor accuses Thurrock Council enforcement officers of not bringing enforcement action against the Buckles Lane Traveller site in South Ockendon. The enforcement team has issued forty-five planning contravention notices and secured an injunction in June 2018 preventing additional mobile homes or structures, containers, vehicles or building materials being brought onto the site and stops any further development being carried out. Article
• A Wokingham man who converted a barn and stable into rental accommodation has lost his appeal against an enforcement notice. The owner has three months to remove the fixtures and fittings and return the building back to an equestrian barn. Article
• Three Rivers District Council has issued an enforcement notice against a landowner that has turned his paddock into an overflow car park for an adjacent business centre.  The enforcement notice was issued after planning permission was rejected, now subject to an appeal. Article
• A developer who continued building works in Gretton without first discharging his planning conditions was served with a breach of condition notice and temporary stop notice.  Corby Council is considering further action. Article
• Members of the planning committee at the Forest of Dean District Council has agreed to the issue of enforcement notices after two Gloucestershire farmers dug up two fields and created 5m high muddy mounds. Article
• Community attempts to get a Grade II listed pub, the Old Justice in Bermondsey, listed as an Asset of Community Value in a bid to bring it back into use as a co-operatively owned pub. The Old Justice featured in Sir Paul McCartney’s hit No More Lonely Nights.  Planning permission was rejected to convert the vacant pub into flats and an enforcement notice was issued after wood panelling was removed. The enforcement notice is subject to an appeal.  Article
• Havering Council investigates an unauthorised Traveller encampment in Romford. Article
• The owner of an off-the-grid retreat has manged to keep his buildings from being demolished by obtaining planning permission for agricultural use. Five months earlier Powys County Council prosecuted the man for failing to comply with an enforcement notice issued in 2016 and requiring demolition of the buildings. A jury found him guilty of 18 offences at a four-day trial at Merthyer Crown Court and fined him £750. Article
• Brighton Home Owner launches costs claim against Brighton Council for withdrawing prosecution proceedings. Article