Planning Enforcement

We have legal powers and duties to implement and enforce planning law. This includes protecting buildings of historic importance, controlling outdoor advertisements, dealing with untidy land and buildings, trees and high hedges as well as taking action when serious harm is being caused.

Planning enforcement exists to help control development which has been undertaken without planning permission, or the development constructed does not adhere to the original planning permission granted.

We have to decide whether it is right to take action. It is not a criminal act, in most cases, to breach planning control. However, unauthorised works to protected trees and listed buildings, and the display of unauthorised advertisements, do constitute criminal offences, as does failing to resolve an enforcement notice within a specific timeframe.

Central Government has set down how planning enforcement should operate in the National Planning Policy Framework