Planning breaches rise 27 per cent

PLANNING chiefs at Warrington have reported a “significant” 27 per cent increase in the number of enforcement cases started by the borough council.
A total of 545 new cases were started last year, compared with 427 in the previous year.
The trend is continuing for the first quarter of this year, according to a report to the council’s development control committee.
The 545 complaints received last year break down as follows: unauthorised development: 165; breach of planning conditions: 69; unauthorised advertisements: 163; unauthorised change of use: 80; untidy land: 38; other: 30.
So far, 488 of the complaints have been resolved, leaving just 57 outstanding in addition to 15 cases from previous years which remain open.
After investigation, 197 complaints were found not to be breaches of planning control and required no further action.
Of 348 cases found to be breaches, 271 have been resolved through negotiation.
Sixteen formal notices were served and one prosecution taken – resulting in a firm being ordered to pay £3,072.50 in fines and costs for unauthorised display of advertising signs.
Five appeals were made, of which four were dismissed. Four cases are currently in breach of enforcement notices and prosecution proceedings are being commenced.
In addition, the council’s enforcement team has removed more than 200 unauthorised A-boards in the town centre conservation area and 42 unauthorised adverts have been removed from the Lymm Village conservation area.
This action is to be rolled-out across other conservation areas and retail centres.
The planning enforcement team consists of a team leader and three enforcement officers, two of them part time.
Councillors will be told the team has been able to effectively manage the increase in caseload but is restricted in its ability to do proactive and able only to react to incoming complaints.