Planning Application - what else can I do / where else to go?

[CoCoaButter85]

I wonder if anyone working at the council/ planning could possibly advice what else I can possibly do in this case.

Long story short without giving too many details. We live in East Englad and have issue with a business in residential area. They haven't been operating in line with their planning application for a while now (it's impacting local community to the extent that some household are looking to move out). They have submitted amendment. We as a community are against it and expressed our concern about the amendment submitted and and have our local councillors support as well. So the decision will be with the councillors and not only planning committee.

But my concern is what else can we possibly do? There are about 25 households and we are unhappy about it. Do we contact local mayor? Newspaper? We have done a lot by now but I feel we have reached the end of the road by now in terms of where else we can possibly go.

@WelshNerd - to re-enforce original planning application conditions

@LIZS - councillor has been super helpful throughout the process. I would not have got where I am without her. Good points re environmental conditions. Will have to dig deeper into this

I'm a planning lawyer and have advised local authorities in the past, including advising planning committees. If they aren't operating in accordance with the conditions attached to the planning permission the council can issue them with a breach of condition notice to address the breach. They have other enforcement options open to them too including enforcement notices, stop notices or even an injunction to stop the breach.

It sounds like they are looking into the issue but if it goes on and on without action make as much noise as possible, local papers etc. local councillors do not like bad press and in that event will often put pressure on officers to take action.

If they refuse to take any enforcement action (which is in their gift - enforcement action is discretionary and should only be taken where expedient, proportionate etc) then you could threaten a judicial review of the decision. These are tricky as enforcement is discretionary, but anything that is seen as a judicial review risk will be escalated and possibly reassessed. Good luck!

If the Council refused the amendment application they must consider that the amendments would cause some sort of harm (amenity, impact on neighbours highway safety etc) significant enough to outweigh any benefit of approving the application. The reasons will be set out on the decision notice.
If that is the case, then it makes no sense to allow the business to carry on operating in the way set out in that application. Some form of enforcement action should be taken to prevent the unacceptable harm from continuing. As @honeybeeeee says, there are various forms of action the Council can take. The type of breach will determine which form of action should be taken, but the fact that PP has been refused for the amendments means that to not take some form of action would be perverse.
I'm not sure what is going on with the petition/directorate thing - sounds unique to your Council.
My advice would be to continue to hassle planning and enforcement weekly, and to keep on at your Councillor to get enforcement action started. I warn you it is a very long process, with the applicant having a right to appeal at each stage. They can appeal the recent planning decision too.
Make a nuisance of yourself at the Council to keep this at the top of their pile. Unfortunately there is a massive shortage of planning officers nationally.

@Seeline yes, it all makes sense. The manager of planning enforcement got back to me saying they are looking into our petition as well as assessing what's going on. However, they are very understaffed so that doesn't help at all.

In terms of the planning themselves. Is there any action that gey can take in this instance. The issue is that site operates against the original application and also the circumstances has changed drastically since they gained the approval (way more traffic and noise compared to their original estimates submitted). Is there anything I can do to get them to action anything?

Yes, realise process is very long and no quick solution here

@honeybeeeee - so would I have to find a specialist (planning lawyer like yourself) and instruct them to engage with the council planning and enforcement department? I don't want to be taking this action due to financial impact but need to consider all the options.

Review of the petition is in a couple of months. But the situation is horrible to be in right now.

You don't need a planning lawyer. A planning consultant would do (but costs are involved too). But you can do this yourself, would really recommend asking your local councillor and possibly MP (if in England) to provide you support and to push the enforcement team to follow up on the lack of compliance with planning permission and/or conditions.

Another option is Planning Aid, they are volunteer town planners who can support communities but the website may give you help too.

There is often a condition on hgv movements - average per day, per week, maximum for any day, operationg hours etc. If there is you could perhaps organise a survey to monitor it.

Agree you don't need a planning lawyer, you can put pressure on them yourself. Make sure your petition is forwarded to your ward councillors (or all of them!). You could also present the petition at a full council meeting (although sometimes there are thresholds you'll need to meet, check the council's constitution) or ask to speak about it there. Local journalists attend so might report on it and you'll have the attention of all of them!

Report every breach to the enforcement team. If it means daily calls that's great - the more of a nuisance you are, the more likely they are to keep going with action. Keep in frequent contact with your local Councillor.

So now I have committee meeting next week Wednesday. I need to address my local council committee that considered the petition we have submitted. However, the response by committee was pretty much the response from local planning enforcement team. I have probably up to 3 min to address them. What do I point out in those few minutes that I have to make an impact? I'll try getting through planning enforcement beforehand just to see what exactly they are doing because communication from them is really poor. I suppose my goal is for them to put pressure on local enforcement to make them comply with planning conditions

any ideas/ comments are very welcome. planning to write my speech tomorrow

There are normally guidelines, not only time limited but who can speak and that you can only cover points you have already made in writing etc so worth asking beforehand. Will others be speaking for and against, such as a local councillor or others who submitted objections. If so you could divide your points between you to avoid duplication

@LIZS thank for getting back and ideas. Working on this currently so will be emailing councillor as well as committee contact person to see if I can get further information on the matter

If the business is causing issues with noise, light, dust, waste, fumes etc... You could log a complaint with the council's environmental health office. There is also the HSE if you feel they are acting unsafely to themselves or others.

What is actually being reported to the Committee? You should be able to see a copy of the report. What is the officer recommendation to the Committee?

• do they acknowledge a breach of planning is happening
• are they recommending enforcement action
• are they recommending a new planning application be submitted

-are the recommending no further action

Check that the facts are correct in the report.
Check whether anything you are particularly concerned about is covered in the report.

You could try and find out if anyone else is speaking - you may be able to coordinate your presentations.