Give councils powers to tackle unauthorised development
Ponderous processes and lumbering legal procedures are undermining councils’ ability to tackle unauthorised developments and enforce against breaches of planning rules.
Cllr Richard Millard, EHDC Leader, has called on the government to fix the failing legislation around an issue that causes uproar in rural locations up and down the country.
He believes that district councils have been hamstrung by cumbersome legal processes for too long and that it is too easy for developers to ignore the rules and too difficult for councils to react.
In a letter to the Government he said that urgent changes are needed to let councils act faster and go further.
Read our letter to the Government
“The planning system is fundamentally failing residents,” he said. “They expect us to be able to respond quickly and decisively to serious planning breaches. But in reality council powers are light-weight and unwieldy.
“The courts are so choked with cases that by the time the High Court awards an injunction to stop unauthorised development, the damage has already been done.
“Development can be finished in days but undoing the work and returning the site to its original state could take months or years of legal action, with no guarantee of success.
“For years councils have been attempting to tackle unauthorised developments with one hand tied behind their backs.
“Residents look to us to protect their countryside but we can only work within the limits of the law. Like a treadmill stuck on slow, the current legal processes frustrate our efforts to move at pace.
“It is time the government took responsibility for this failing system and implemented legislation to address the mess that’s making life miserable for residents across the country.”
Cllr Millard’s comments follow a slew of cases where unauthorised development have taken place on sensitive sites causing anger and upset for local residents.
EHDC is committed to working constructively with all residents and community groups to ensure that planning decisions are made lawfully, fairly and in accordance with local and national policy.
Cllr Millard said: “That does not mean that people should be able to game the planning system and bring about such drastic changes without planning permission. Councils should be given the tools they need to stop this quickly and robustly, and fundamentally the law should provide serious disincentives for developing in this way in the first place.”
The council is calling on ministers to strengthen planning enforcement powers, accelerate legal processes and provide additional funding for planning enforcement.