Agricultural Buildings - Planning Approval
This was also bad information and something which I didn’t quite know at this stage how to get around.
The visit was followed by an email confirming the discussion, and 3-4 months later I received an enforcement notification advising I was in breach of certain conditions of planning consent. Despite the enforcement notice advising I should cease all operations, I did continue development as I believed this could all be worked around, so long as all parties worked together to resolve it.
To my surprise, all parties were not interested in working together to resolve it.
The enforcement notice I received from the council.
Click the image to see the full notice.
Looking back, if they approved the application, I would have also been responsible for the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) which would have cost me roughly an extra £30,000 on top of the £2,500 I had already paid. The planning officer maybe should’ve considered this easy boost in funding, given the fact that approving the application would have brought an extra thirty grand into the local authorities' purse for additional infrastructure. Something that I think the local parishes and county councils should consider more, as additional infrastructure is important for communities, especially the local ones that are lacking so much in services and facilities.
Also looking back, I now know that as the agricultural building was in agricultural use in 2012 and I can’t help questioning myself as to why I submitted a new planning app for £2500.
For £250, I could’ve submitted a pre-approval and obtained it through permitted development (subject to solving the flood risk factor).
I found the local authorities wholly unhelpful in resolving the situation or even letting me know what it was they wanted to be done. Because of this was facing the prospect of demolishing the substantial development I’d already finished; returning the holiday homes to dilapidated barns or cowsheds as progression seemed unachievable.
And how did the council respond to this complaint?
They dismissed it out of hand, saying that "Whilst the language used is less than perfect", "it is of little surprise that individuals at the council have expressed their views in this way – they are only human!"
Now, as a campsite owner, I have to watch what I say intently while interacting with guests, much like a cashier, waiter, or any other customer service worker. If, when faced with a particularly tough customer, I resorted to language like that used against me by Councillor Parish I would, at best, get a poor review that has the chance to damage the business and at worst, get a complaint sent straight to the council. If a customer service worker did the same, they would get reprimanded or even fired for their misconduct.
So I ask, why are Customer Service staff, minimum wage workers who assist the public, and anyone else who interfaces with people in any capacity held to a higher standard than the Councillors who are meant to have the public's best interests at heart?
The Local Government Association's Councillor's Code of Conduct 2020 outlines how a Councillor ought to act. Calling me a "rogue developer" and a "joke" is clearly a lack of respect in breach of point 1.1, and all the comments are attempts to undermine and humiliate me, which is a breach of point 2.
They seemed to believe the entrance was not at least 5 metres wide as confirmed as a condition, and as such are chasing us regarding a failure to undertake work on it.
The thing is, it’s over 6 metres wide.
That’s the first order of the conditions but there was no work to undertake as we were already compliant. It was a retrospective application as the work was already done before submitting the application. The enforcement officer failed to explain what it is I failed to do and progressed to enforce against me. By enforcing against me, they potentially stand to make this access unusable and therefore my holiday lets unlawful. I have, of course, appealed against this. See images for full details of the appeal.
Request of & Appeal for Minor Amendment
Meanwhile, under another enforcement, the officers come and inspect the final Holiday Let I completed and state that the windows and doors aren’t as expected or say on plans. As such, I need to change them and apply for a planning application on that change. At this point, thanks to the barrage of planning applications I’ve had to fill out, I’m becoming quite knowledgeable and know that the full planning process isn’t needed, I just need a minor amendment to the original plan. The minor amendment needed to show the windows and doors in a slightly different location. I just needed to apply under a minor amendment, and so I did.
For some reason, the LPA then decided not to evaluate the minor amendment but instead evaluated the application as a new residential use with the potential for having more guests than the planning consent allowed for. This, unsurprisingly, left me completely dumbstruck; you ask the local planning authorities to judge on one issue and instead of that, they decide to judge on a different question you haven’t raised, wasn’t expected or asked to raise, and as such wasn’t in the application form and you haven’t submitted details on. That's like if I entered my young female labrador Bramble into Crufts and find out she was rejected because they judged her on being a Bulldog!
This cannot be right.
