Planning Enforcement Strategy - Consultation

What are we consulting on?

Government guidance encourages all local planning authorities to publish an enforcement plan, and this should set out how the council will investigate alleged cases of unauthorised development and take action where appropriate.  A Local Enforcement Plan is not a formal or statutory document, unlike the council’s development plan containing its planning policies.

Planning enforcement is a discretionary service, and all enforcement action must be expedient and in the public interest.  The adoption of a plan benefits customers by reassuring the public and other public bodies that effective and proportionate practises are in place. It provides for consistent and targeted enforcement activity, whilst also supporting transparent and effective dialogue and understanding between the public, councillors, and planning enforcement officers.

The council’s existing planning enforcement strategy is out of date and we are now consulting on a revised version.

How can I get involved?

The draft Planning Enforcement Strategy is available to view online at www.swale.gov.uk/pes and we are seeking the views of any interested party. Comments should be sent to [email protected] with the word ‘Consultation’ in the subject line.

The consultation runs from 26 February 2024 to 21 April 2024

Please note that we will not respond directly or to individual consultation responses.

What happens next?

Once we have collated and evaluated the survey responses, the Planning Enforcement Team Leader together with enforcement officers will conduct an evaluation of each response and give a recommendation as to whether to amend the strategy. The recommendations will be put before a future Committee meeting for endorsement and once endorsed the plan will become operational and used by our planning enforcement team.