Draft planning enforcement plan

Date of consultation: Monday, June 20, 2022 - Friday, July 29, 2022

Consultation summary

What are we consulting on?

Government guidance encourages all local planning authorities to publish a local enforcement plan.  A local enforcement plan should set out how the council will investigate alleged cases of unauthorised development and take action where appropriate.  A local enforcement plan is not a formal or statutory document, unlike the council’s development plan containing its planning policies.

Planning enforcement is a discretionary service, and all enforcement action must be expedient and in the public interest.  The local enforcement plan provides commentary and guidance on how the council will consider planning enforcement.  The purpose of the local enforcement plan is to provide transparency and accountability to the council’s processes in deciding if it is expedient to exercise its powers, and provide certainty for all parties engaged in the process.

The council’s existing enforcement policy (available to view here) is out of date.  We are now consulting on a revised version.

What is different about the new plan?

The planning system is complicated.  We want our communities to understand what planning enforcement is, how it works, and what it can do for them.  We have structured our draft plan around ‘frequently asked questions’, providing an indication as to life-cycle of a planning enforcement complaint without unnecessary and confusing jargon.

What happens next?

Once we have collated and evaluated the survey responses, we will consider and revise the plan.  The final draft will then be presented to the council’s Development Control Committee for endorsement.  This is anticipated to be in the autumn/ winter 2022.  Once endorsed, the plan will become operational and used by our planning enforcement team.

Please note that we will not respond directly or to individual consultation responses.