Illegal structure - no planning permission

akkers

We have a small lovely green space at the end of our street. Last year a contruction company came an installed a large electrical appratus (transformer?) and put a cabin around it. This has taken up about 20% of the green space. I had not seen any reference to a planning application so I complained to the council planning dept. They wrote back and said they will investigate. Obiously, they could have just told me this structure had or not had planning permission. But no, they sat on it and I have written to them several times over the course of 10 months and they keep saying its in hand. I have now written to my local councillor who is also dragging it out.

I feel the council will not deal with my complaint and are just playing delaying tactics.

Is there any higher authority that I can complain to?

TELLIT01

Planning is down to your local council, and the initial letter from them is really nothing more than acknowledgement of your letter.  If they hadn't responded until they had time to investigate, that would probably have been reason to complain too.  Most council departments tend to be understaffed, so a complaint after something has been built probably keeps being pushed to the back of the workload. 

If neither the planning department nor the local councillor has acted on it the next step would be your MP.  Is you local councillor still in office after the latest local elections?

Section62

akkers said:

We have a small lovely green space at the end of our street. Last year a contruction company came an installed a large electrical appratus (transformer?) and put a cabin around it. This has taken up about 20% of the green space. I had not seen any reference to a planning application so I complained to the council planning dept. They wrote back and said they will investigate. Obiously, they could have just told me this structure had or not had planning permission. But no, they sat on it and I have written to them several times over the course of 10 months and they keep saying its in hand. I have now written to my local councillor who is also dragging it out.

I feel the council will not deal with my complaint and are just playing delaying tactics.

Is there any higher authority that I can complain to?

If you've exhaused the council's own complaints process then you can complain to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman, but that would only be on the basis of the concil not dealing with your enquiry promptly, not whether or not planning consent was needed.

I suspect the reason they couldn't give a yes/no answer is because it isn't a straightforward case - some development is exempt from needing planning consent, other types of development can be 'permitted development' and done without making an application.

The council would need to investigate what the development is, and then work out whether consent was required.  This takes time and resources and may not be a priority if the planning team have a heavy workload.

Did you try contacting the utility company that put the equipment there? If they are exercising one of their statutory powers they typically have to put up street notices on or near the plant which explains what they have done and how people can complain/object.

akkers

Yes I understand councils are understaffed and overloaded with work. But its been 10 months since I first complained.

In any other situation, say a member of the public building an extension without planning permission and they would be round in no time with the JCBs to demolish.

Section62

akkers said:

Yes I understand councils are understaffed and overloaded with work. But its been 10 months since I first complained.

In any other situation, say a member of the public building an extension without planning permission and they would be round in no time with the JCBs to demolish.

Not really, no.

Unless there were aggravating circumstances, the first step would usually be a site visit and/or a polite invitation to apply for retrospective consent.  If the householder declined (within a reasonable amount of time) to apply for consent then the formal enforcement process would start.  That would typically allow the householder the opportunity to modify the development (to use your example an extension) so it complied with the permitted development rules, or if they preferred to demolish the work themselves.  Only if the enforcement notice is not complied with (within a reasonable period of time) would the council be likely to consider doing the demolition on behalf of the resident - and then only if it were in the public interest to do so.  All in all a period of maybe two to three years (and a lot of intransigence on the householder's part) would pass before the council sent in the JCBs.

With utility equipment there is a public good being done - so enforcement action (especially any involving JCBs) would only happen if there was a very good reason.  For example where there was no statutory power and the development seriously impacted on the setting of a listed building.

The council has four (maybe ten) years in order to commence enforcement action, so there is no hurry, even if the development is a blot on the landscape.

akkers

It IS a blot on the landscape IMO. But I guess the council will take forever to figure out some fineprint to fob me off.

What bothers me is that they could have replied to my initial complaint in one of 2 ways: 'Yes there was a planning application which was approved on xxx date..'  or 'No there was no planning permission and we will investigate'.

Should that take 10 months?

BarelySentientAI

akkers said:

Should that take 10 months?

It would take ten minutes for you to look that up for yourself.

Planning applications and decisions are public.

FreeBear

Section62 said:  Only if the enforcement notice is not complied with (within a reasonable period of time) would the council be likely to consider doing the demolition on behalf of the resident - and then only if it were in the public interest to do so.  All in all a period of maybe two to three years (and a lot of intransigence on the householder's part) would pass before the council sent in the JCBs.

The council has four (maybe ten) years in order to commence enforcement action, so there is no hurry, even if the development is a blot on the landscape.

For work substantially completed prior to 25th April 2024, it is four years. Anything done after that date, the council now have ten years to commence enforcement.

Even if enforcement is taken, the council is highly unlikely to send in the JCBs even with an intransigent owner - It took Reigate Council 12 years to get Mr Fiddler to demolish his abomination known as Honeycrock Farm.

Section62

BarelySentientAI said:

akkers said:

Should that take 10 months?

It would take ten minutes for you to look that up for yourself.

Planning applications and decisions are public.

...or contact the utility company to find out what power(s) they used to place their equipment on public(?) land.

Section62

FreeBear said:

Section62 said:  Only if the enforcement notice is not complied with (within a reasonable period of time) would the council be likely to consider doing the demolition on behalf of the resident - and then only if it were in the public interest to do so.  All in all a period of maybe two to three years (and a lot of intransigence on the householder's part) would pass before the council sent in the JCBs.

The council has four (maybe ten) years in order to commence enforcement action, so there is no hurry, even if the development is a blot on the landscape.

For work substantially completed prior to 25th April 2024, it is four years. Anything done after that date, the council now have ten years to commence enforcement.

...

Before 25th April 2024 there were two time limits in England - 4 and 10 years, depending on the nature of the breach.

It is possible what has been done here might fall into one of the old 10 year limit categories, but impossible to say without more detail. (the potential complexity of planning rules in a case like this is why I suspect the council will need time to work it out)