Planning Enforcement Charter 2024

The Council will always treat information about the identity of people who report breaches to us in confidence and will only disclose it when required to do so by law.

We do encourage you to provide your name and contact details, as we may require further information from you as the investigation progresses or to understand the impacts of the breach and how it affects you. This also allows us to keep you informed of progress and the outcome of our investigations. 

Where an anonymous observation is received, we reserve the right to choose not to investigate. Where it relates to one of our priority areas, or it is judged to be in the public interest, we are more likely to investigate breaches that have been reported anonymously.  

Registration of Your Observation

When we receive an observation, we first check that it includes all the information we need for an enforcement case to be investigated. Where an enquiry relates to non-planning matters, such as neighbour disputes or other civil issues, these cannot be investigated by the Council. If your enquiry relates to another function of the Council, we will direct this to the appropriate department. Upon a justified complaint being received, a case will be opened and published on our Public Access system.

Service Standard - 1
After preliminary checks, we will register your enforcement observation and you will receive either an email or written confirmation of this within 5 working days from receipt. This acknowledgement will, if justified and considered a breach of control, include a reference number for the case as well as the contact details of the investigating Enforcement Officer.

Initial Investigations

Following registration, an Enforcement Officer may visit the site to investigate. The timescales for this will depend on factors such as the type and significance of the issue. The Council has legal powers to enter land or property in order to identify if a breach of planning control has taken place. The same powers are available throughout the process for the purposes of investigation or assessing compliance with any enforcement notices served (see 'Resolving Cases' overleaf). 

Service Standard - 2
Where a site visit is required we will undertake this within 15 working days from registration of a case, unless further actions are required (see below).

In some cases, we may require further information from you about the suspected breach, such as photographs or evidence of development or activity, before or instead of visiting the site. Additional investigation at this stage may also be required for some cases to establish if a breach has occurred, such as utilising our legal powers to seek information from the developer(s) about the use of land and/or parties that have an interest in the land. This can include us serving a Planning Contravention Notice (PCN). The serving of notices for this purpose may lengthen the process and, if this is required, this will be explained to you where possible. 

Service Standard - 3
You will receive a follow-up response to your observation within 20 working days of receipt. This will advise of any provisional findings and, where relevant, detail the proposed course of action for the case, which could mean formal enforcement action being taken. Communication will also be made at this stage with the Developer on our findings and possible action. 

You may also be advised at this stage if the observation does not constitute a breach of planning control or is not a planning matter - either of which will result in your case being closed. We will set out in writing our reasoning for all cases closed in a Closing Report.