Advice re new building not complying with planning permission

[mauvish]

Long story so I'll try to be brief.

My elderly neighbour died and their house was bought by a builder. Said builder has upgraded the house, and built another house on what was the footprint of the garage.

I, and other neighbours, did not support the planning application on various grounds, one of which was parking. The application showed offroad parking space for 2 cars for each of the houses; it seemed very clear to me that that wasn't going to happen.

The offroad parking space of the house next to me was supposed to be 5.9 m wide. In fact it is much narrower; I suspect it's shorter too as it doesn't accommodate the car, which overhangs onto the pavement. It's actually about 4.7m wide - obviously I can't go onto the property to measure the depth to compare with the original plans!

However the builder has now sold the house, and my new neighbour is clearly not the guilty party here. (She's also not v friendly!)

So what, if anything, happens about this breach?

If the built development doesn't comply with the approved plans or any of the conditions on the decision notice then you can report it to your local council enforcement department and ask them to investigate. There'll probably be an email or form on their website. Make sure you detail the harm that is being caused (i.e. to highway and pedestrian safety) as the more harm demonstrated makes it more likely they will investigate.

The purchaser's solicitors should have checked all that out, given it was a new build, confirming the planning permission is an important job.
I'm not sure who dropped the ball on this but I agree the council will sort it out (or decide it's not worth enforcing)