How to report a planning breach
Councillor Jo Farrar-Astrop explains.
Who you gonna call?
Have you been bothered by something you have seen in your area? Have caravans appeared on a next door paddock, have a neighbour’s plans for a modest single storey extension suddenly mushroomed into an extra wing? You are sure you are living in the Green Belt but someone is putting up a house in a farmers field!
What do you do about this?
The answer is to report it on the MVDC website. The sooner the Council are aware of it the sooner they can deal with it.
What happens next?
An enforcement officer will visit the site and, if it is in breach of planning regulations, will issue an enforcement notice to the landowner. This is a legal document that orders the site’s occupants to comply with the notice or appeal against it. They get 6 months to comply with the notice after which, if they have failed to comply, MVDC may begin legal proceedings, leading to prosecution. As this is a legal process there won’t be much to see happening on the ground. It all happens behind the scenes. This doesn’t mean that nothing has been done or your complaints have been ignored.
https://www.molevalley.gov.uk/home/building-planning/planning-enforcement/reporting-planning-breach