At the end of 2005 Chris enquired as to whether there was a ‘breach of planning control’ at the Asda site – i.e. , had Asda started their building works before they had planning permission.
This week (without any prompting) Chris received a letter from the District Council:
20th November 2007
Site Location : Park School, Rawreth Lane, Rayleigh, Essex SS6 9RN
Nature of Complaint: Development commenced following refusal of 05/00599/REM
Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended)Dear Cllr Black,
I am writing with regards to an outstanding planning enforcement case at the above site.
I can confirm that works had commenced on site prior to the full approval of planning permission, therefore a breach of planning control had occurred. However, due to an appeal which was pending at the time of your complaint it was decided that it would not be reasonable nor expedient to pursue this matter with further enforcement action prior to the outcome of this appeal. The appeal was allowed on the 25th January 2007 and works could therefore commence lawfullyin line with the appeal decision. I am therefore closing this planning enforcement case.
If you wish to discuss this matter further then please do not hesitate to contact me
Even more reason to keep a very close eye on the top secret plans for the gravelled area as RDC and the Tories have abandoned this area to developers.
Little more to say about this one really, is there. ASDA were not going to be denied their store, our planners and the District Council were either not strong enough or had no intention of following guidelines so that’s is that, just another example of why we need a complete rethink of how our planning department works!
As John Reid would put it “not fit for purpose”