Planning enforcement
Planning enforcement happens when we use our legal powers to enforce planning controls if we think that it is in the public interest.
You should use the planning enforcement form to tell us about:
- work being carried out without planning permission or other types of permission (such as listed building consent or advertisement consent)
- unauthorised change of use of land and buildings
- not keeping to conditions attached to any permission
- work that doesn't keep to the approved plans which have been given planning permission
- work on trees that are protected by a planning condition or tree preservation order
We will try to keep you informed about significant stages in the progress of a case.
More details are in our Planning enforcement charter.
What we will do
We will usually try negotiating with the person who is responsible, rather than immediately taking legal action. We will give them a specific amount of time to either stop what they are doing and put it right right or encourage them to send us a planning application if one hasn't been submitted. This is known as a retrospective planning application.
We will take legal action if a situation is harming to an area and where negotiations have failed. We may also take action if a retrospective application is unacceptable and can't be made acceptable by placing conditions on it.
Action we have taken
The enforcement action we have taken is listed in the Planning enforcement register.
For more information contact your local Planning and Building Standards Office.
