The Enforcement Team’s Heavy Workload

The District Council’s Planning Enforcement Team have the job of enforcing the planning rules. Whenever there’s a case of someone doing something without first getting planning permission, it ends up on their desks.

And there are a lot of breaches of planning control reported to them. In the three months of April, May and June, they received 71 complaints. That’s slightly below average for a three-month period. The list doesn’t seem to be available on the council’s website, but it is mostly small-scale stuff – unauthorised extensions and untidy sites crop up a lot.

But all these things may be important if you live next door to them. Some other complaints are for a large balloon raised during the day in Rawreth, the erection of a mobile phone mast in Hullbridge , a tree house in Hawkwell , the erection of discus throwing netting in Rayleigh, and the siting of a houseboat in Rochford.