PLAN­NING ENFORCE­MENT CHARTER

Updated Novem­ber 2024

Intro­duc­tion

Enforce­ment of plan­ning con­trols can be a com­plic­ated part of the plan­ning sys­tem and affect many mem­bers of a com­munity. This charter explains how the plan­ning enforce­ment pro­cess works in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

It explains the roles of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) and the loc­al author­it­ies who share plan­ning powers. It should help any­one with an interest in the enforce­ment pro­cess to under­stand the pro­ced­ures involved, the powers avail­able to a plan­ning author­ity as well as the lim­its of those powers.

The aim of this charter is to ensure that the pro­ced­ures adop­ted by the CNPA are fair, reas­on­able, con­sist­ent and accountable.

What is Plan­ning Enforcement?

Most devel­op­ment that takes place in Scot­land needs plan­ning per­mis­sion. Some­times, developers, house­hold­ers or landown­ers under­take work without plan­ning per­mis­sion or don’t imple­ment work in the way that the approved plans and con­di­tions set out. These are breaches of plan­ning control.

The pur­pose of plan­ning enforce­ment is to resolve those breaches of plan­ning con­trol. It is not used to pun­ish the developer or house­hold­er who has breached a plan­ning con­trol. Most breaches of plan­ning con­trol are resolved by dis­cus­sion between the plan­ning author­ity and developer or landown­er. If that does not resolve the prob­lem, plan­ning author­it­ies have powers to enforce plan­ning con­trols where they decide it is in the pub­lic interest.

The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Plan­ning Cir­cu­lar 10/2009: Plan­ning Enforce­ment has detailed inform­a­tion about the use of plan­ning enforce­ment powers.

Plan­ning enforce­ment also cov­ers the dis­play of advert­ise­ments such as bill­boards and advert­ise­ment hoard­ings. The pro­ced­ures for enforce­ment are slightly dif­fer­ent and are explained in the appendix to this note.

The con­tent of an advert­ise­ment is not covered by plan­ning con­trol. Only the Advert­ising Stand­ards Author­ity http://​www​.asa​.org​.uk can con­sider com­plaints about the con­tent of an advertisement.

Who takes enforce­ment action?

All the plan­ning author­it­ies in Cairngorms Nation­al Park have powers to invest­ig­ate and take enforce­ment action on devel­op­ment that does not have plan­ning per­mis­sion, breaches of plan­ning con­di­tions or oth­er envir­on­ment­al mat­ters that affect gen­er­al amen­ity of an area. In most cases, the plan­ning author­ity who gran­ted plan­ning per­mis­sion will take action. This will either be your loc­al authority’s plan­ning ser­vice or the CNPA. The con­tact details for the enforce­ment teams of each plan­ning author­ity are lis­ted on page 7.

If devel­op­ment is under­taken without plan­ning per­mis­sion, then the plan­ning author­ity who would have con­sidered a plan­ning applic­a­tion for that devel­op­ment will take action. This will either be your loc­al authority’s plan­ning ser­vice or the CNPA. You can find out what types of devel­op­ment the CNPA is likely to call-in and determ­ine in this Plan­ning Advice Note: Apply­ing for Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Enforce­ment powers are used at a plan­ning authority’s dis­cre­tion. They will only use them where they decide it is in the pub­lic interest to cor­rect the breach of plan­ning con­trol in that way. The plan­ning author­ity can decide that no enforce­ment action is needed. Any action taken must be pro­por­tion­ate, bal­anced and reasonable.

Loc­al author­it­ies also have powers to resolve dis­putes about high hedges. This Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment guid­ance explains more.

Has a breach of plan­ning con­trol taken place?

A breach of plan­ning con­trol can be any of the fol­low­ing actions that take place without plan­ning permission:

• Devel­op­ment, e.g. new build­ings or changes of use;
• Devel­op­ment that is not in accord­ance with approved plans or conditions;
• Car­ry­ing out works to or demoli­tion of a lis­ted building;
• The dis­play of an advert;
• Felling or car­ry­ing out works to a tree pro­tec­ted by a Tree Pre­ser­va­tion Order or with­in a con­ser­va­tion area;
• Demoli­tion of a build­ing in a con­ser­va­tion area.

How to report a breach of plan­ning control

Plan­ning author­it­ies mon­it­or devel­op­ment and may identi­fy breaches of plan­ning con­trol but mem­bers of the pub­lic play an import­ant role in report­ing breaches.

If you think a breach has taken place you can check for rel­ev­ant plan­ning or oth­er related con­sents and any cur­rent enforce­ment cases on the plan­ning authority’s web­site. You may need to check both your council’s plan­ning web pages and the CNPA’s web­site. You can also email planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk or phone (01479 873 535) the plan­ning author­ity for some advice.

If you decide to report a sus­pec­ted breach, the plan­ning author­ity will need:

• The address of the prop­erty concerned;
• The name of the own­er of the prop­erty and if you know, the per­son respons­ible for the sus­pec­ted breach;
• Details of the sus­pec­ted breach of plan­ning con­trol, with times and dates if relevant;
• Your name, tele­phone num­ber, address and if pos­sible, email address;
• Inform­a­tion on how the breach affects you;

Although you can request that your report remains con­fid­en­tial, some inform­a­tion may be released under requests for inform­a­tion from the plan­ning author­ity or if a

case leads to court pro­ceed­ings. The CNPA and loc­al author­ity plan­ning teams may also need to share a repor­ted breach if the oth­er author­ity will be respons­ible for any invest­ig­a­tion. You will be asked for your per­mis­sion if this is the case.

Pri­or­it­ising invest­ig­a­tions of pos­sible breaches of plan­ning control

While each plan­ning author­ity will con­sider all reports of sus­pec­ted breaches, they will also pri­or­it­ise the most sig­ni­fic­ant breaches for invest­ig­a­tion and enforce­ment action.

The CNPA pri­or­it­ises the fol­low­ing factors:

• Works under­taken in con­tra­ven­tion of an enforce­ment notice;
• Unau­thor­ised devel­op­ment that could lead to dam­age to des­ig­nated sites of nation­al and inter­na­tion­al importance;
• Unau­thor­ised works to trees in a Con­ser­va­tion Area or pro­tec­ted by Tree Pre­ser­va­tion Orders;
• Unau­thor­ised works to lis­ted build­ings or demoli­tion of a build­ing in a Con­ser­va­tion Area
• Breaches of plan­ning con­trol that cause sig­ni­fic­ant harm to the aims of the Nation­al Park.

There are two stages of assessment:

• Wheth­er there is a breach of plan­ning control;
• Wheth­er it is in the pub­lic interest to take action.

What hap­pens if a breach of plan­ning con­trol has taken place?

If a breach of plan­ning con­trol is con­firmed and action con­sidered neces­sary, the case will be con­sidered against the policies of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan to decide wheth­er per­mis­sion would be con­sidered accept­able with the impos­i­tion of con­di­tions or oth­er lim­it­a­tions. The developer or house­hold­er may need to simply change part of their devel­op­ment to com­ply with their plan­ning per­mis­sion. In some cases, they may need to sub­mit a plan­ning applic­a­tion to cor­rect the breach. This is known as a ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning applic­a­tion. The pub­lic can com­ment on the planning

applic­a­tion and any­one who had repor­ted the sus­pec­ted breach would be asked for their views. The fact that the devel­op­ment has already been car­ried out has no bear­ing upon the decision made on the application.

If the breach can­not be resolved through dis­cus­sion, the plan­ning author­ity will con­sider serving a form­al notice. Form­al action will only be taken for ser­i­ous breaches of plan­ning con­trol where harm to pub­lic amen­ity is significant.

Form­al Enforce­ment Notices

There are a num­ber of dif­fer­ent form­al notices that can be used by a plan­ning author­ity to enforce plan­ning con­trols. They are lis­ted in Appendix 1. The plan­ning author­ity will write to the recip­i­ent of the notice to explain:

• A descrip­tion of the breach of control;
• The options avail­able to the recip­i­ent to resolve the breach of control;
• The times­cales involved;
• The con­sequences of fail­ure to com­ply with the notice;
• If the recip­i­ent has any rights of appeal against the notice and how to lodge one.

If you receive a form­al notice on plan­ning enforce­ment from a plan­ning author­ity you should seek leg­al or inde­pend­ent pro­fes­sion­al advice.

Ser­vice Standards

Each plan­ning author­ity has ser­vice stand­ards for plan­ning enforce­ment. The CNPA’s ser­vice stand­ards for enforce­ment are avail­able in our Plan­ning Ser­vice Charter.

Com­plaints about Plan­ning Enforcement

Each plan­ning author­ity aims to sat­is­fy cus­tom­ers and wel­comes sug­ges­tions to improve their ser­vice. If you are dis­sat­is­fied about the ser­vice provided by the plan­ning author­ity deal­ing with an enforce­ment case you can provide feed­back or make a com­pli­ant dir­ect to the enforce­ment and plan­ning ser­vice or via the plan­ning authority’s form­al com­plaints procedures.

The CNPA’s com­plaints pro­ced­ure is avail­able at http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​o​r​king- together/​authority/​about/​complaints/​

Fur­ther advice

This Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter has been pro­duced to explain how the plan­ning enforce­ment pro­cess works in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

You can get more advice on plan­ning enforce­ment from the plan­ning depart­ment of the rel­ev­ant loc­al author­ity. You can also get advice and fur­ther cop­ies of this Charter from the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity plan­ning team in Grant­own on Spey at: planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk. Tel: 01479 873535

Plan­ning Enforce­ment Contacts

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square, Grant­own on Spey PH26 3HG Tele­phone: 01479 870 512 or 01479 873 535 Email: planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​-​d​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​/​t​h​e​-​p​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​-​s​e​r​v​i​c​e​/​e​n​f​o​r​c​e​ment/

Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Gor­don House, Black­hall Road, Inver­urie, AB51 3WA Tele­phone: 01467 534 333 Email: planningenforcement@​aberdeenshire.​gov.​uk www​.aber​deen​shire​.gov​.uk/​p​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​/​p​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​-​e​n​f​o​r​c​ement

Angus Coun­cil Angus House, Orch­ard­bank Busi­ness Park, For­far, DD8 1AN Tele­phone: 03452 777 778 Email — planning@​angus.​gov.​uk or accessline@​angus.​gov.​uk https://​www​.angus​.gov​.uk/​p​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​_​a​n​d​_​b​u​i​l​d​i​n​g​/​p​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​_​p​e​r​m​i​s​s​i​o​n​_​a​n​d​_​a​p​plica tions/​report_​a_​planning_​breach

High­land Coun­cil Glen­ur­quhart Road, Inverness, IV3 5NX Tele­phone: 01349 886608 www​.high​land​.gov​.uk/​p​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​e​n​f​o​r​c​ement

Moray Coun­cil The Moray Coun­cil, PO Box 6760, Elgin, IV30 9BX Tele­phone: 03001234561 Email: development.​control@​moray.​gov.​uk http://​www​.moray​.gov​.uk/​m​o​r​a​y​_​s​t​a​n​d​a​r​d​/​p​a​g​e​_​8​2​1​9​3​.html

Perth and Kinross Pul­lar House, 35 Kin­noull Street, Perth, PH1 5GD Tele­phone: 01738 475300 Email: PlanningEnforcement@​pkc.​gov.​uk https://​www​.pkc​.gov​.uk/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​1​5​0​3​5​/​P​l​a​n​n​i​n​g​-​e​n​f​o​r​c​ement

Appendix 1

Enforce­ment Powers

The enforce­ment powers avail­able to a plan­ning author­ity are set out in Part VI of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 and in Chapter IV of the Plan­ning (Lis­ted Build­ings and Con­ser­va­tion Areas) (Scot­land) Act 1997 and Plan­ning etc. (Scot­land) Act 2006. Gov­ern­ment policy on enforce­ment is set out in Plan­ning Cir­cu­lar 10/2009.

All plan­ning legis­la­tion can be viewed at www.gov.scot

Plan­ning legis­la­tion is com­plex. If you receive a form­al notice from a plan­ning author­ity, you are advised to seek leg­al or inde­pend­ent pro­fes­sion­al advice.

Types of Notice

Enforce­ment Notice – this gen­er­ally deals with unau­thor­ised devel­op­ment, but can also apply to breach of plan­ning con­di­tions. The notice must be served on the cur­rent own­er, occu­pi­er and any­one else with an interest in the prop­erty. There is a right of appeal and the notice is sus­pen­ded until a decision is reached. Fail­ure to com­ply with an Enforce­ment Notice is an offence and may lead to a fine in the Sher­iff Court. Fail­ure to com­ply may also res­ult in the plan­ning author­ity tak­ing Dir­ect Action to cor­rect the breach.

Breach of Con­di­tion Notice (BCN) — this enforces the con­di­tions applied to any plan­ning per­mis­sion. It may be served on any­one car­ry­ing out devel­op­ment and/​or any per­son hav­ing con­trol of the land. There is no right of appeal to this notice. Any­one who con­tra­venes a Breach of Con­di­tion notice can be fined by the Courts.

Lis­ted Build­ing Enforce­ment Notice – it is a crim­in­al offence to under­take unau­thor­ised works to demol­ish, sig­ni­fic­antly alter, or extend a lis­ted build­ing. This notice enforces any unau­thor­ised works to a lis­ted build­ing and must be served on the cur­rent own­er, occu­pi­er and any­one else with an interest in the prop­erty. Fail­ure to meet the terms of the notice by the date spe­cified is an offence. There is the right of appeal against the notice. In cer­tain cir­cum­stances, this can lead either to an

unlim­ited fine or impris­on­ment. Powers are also avail­able to serve a Repairs Notice or carry out urgent works to a lis­ted build­ing that is not being prop­erly maintained.

Stop Notice — this is used in urgent or ser­i­ous situ­ations where unau­thor­ised activ­ity must be stopped, usu­ally on grounds of pub­lic safety. When a Stop Notice is served, the plan­ning author­ity must also issue an Enforce­ment Notice. There is no right of appeal against a Stop Notice and fail­ure to com­ply is an offence. An appeal can be made against the accom­pa­ny­ing Enforce­ment Notice. If a Stop Notice is served without due cause, or an appeal against the Enforce­ment Notice is suc­cess­ful, the plan­ning author­ity may face claims for com­pens­a­tion. There­fore, the use of Stop Notices needs to be care­fully assessed by the plan­ning authority.

Tem­por­ary Stop Notice (TSN) – this requires the imme­di­ate halt of an activ­ity which breaches plan­ning con­trol. These notices are only enforce­able for up to 28 days, after which time, they expire. They may, how­ever, be fol­lowed by fur­ther enforce­ment action such as an Enforce­ment Notice and Stop Notice. There is no right of appeal. Fail­ure to com­ply with the notice is an offence which may res­ult in a fine in the Courts. The Loc­al Author­ity may face claims for com­pens­a­tion and there­fore the use of TNs must be care­fully assessed.

Fixed Pen­alty Notice (FPN) — this provides the plan­ning author­ity with an altern­at­ive pro­cess, in addi­tion to the option to seek pro­sec­u­tion, to address situ­ations where a per­son has failed to com­ply with an Enforce­ment Notice (EN) or a Breach of Con­di­tion Notice (BCN). By pay­ing the pen­alty imposed by the FPN, the per­son will dis­charge any liab­il­ity for pro­sec­u­tion for the offence. They will not, how­ever, dis­charge the oblig­a­tion to com­ply with the terms of the EN or BCN, and the plan­ning author­ity will retain the power to take dir­ect action to rem­edy the breach and recov­er the costs of such from that per­son. The plan­ning author­ity is not required to offer the option of a fixed pen­alty. Any decision to do so would be depend­ent on con­sid­er­a­tions such as the scale of the breach and its impact on loc­al amenity.

Notice requir­ing applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion for devel­op­ment already car­ried out (S33A) — where the plan­ning author­ity con­siders that an unau­thor­ised devel­op­ment may be accept­able, the plan­ning author­ity may issue a S33A notice requir­ing the landown­er or developer to sub­mit a ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning applic­a­tion. This applic­a­tion will be con­sidered on its plan­ning mer­its and handled in the same way as any oth­er plan­ning applic­a­tion. It allows the plan­ning author­ity to

con­sider grant­ing per­mis­sion sub­ject to con­di­tions or lim­it­a­tions which would make the devel­op­ment accept­able in plan­ning terms. Issu­ing a S33A does not guar­an­tee that per­mis­sion will be gran­ted; the plan­ning author­ity may, on con­sid­er­a­tion of the applic­a­tion, decide instead to refuse per­mis­sion. Fail­ure to com­ply with this notice may res­ult in fur­ther enforce­ment action by the plan­ning authority.

Con­trol of Advertisements

The dis­play of advert­ise­ments is covered by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Con­trol of Advert­ise­ments) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 1984. Many advert­ise­ments are dis­played with ​‘deemed con­sent’ which means they do not require advert­ise­ment con­sent if they meet the cri­ter­ia set out in the regulations.

Dis­play­ing an advert­ise­ment in con­tra­ven­tion of the reg­u­la­tions is an offence and, if con­victed in court, can lead to a fine. The court can impose fur­ther fines for each day the breach of the reg­u­la­tions continues.

Plan­ning author­it­ies have the power to serve an Advert­ise­ment Enforce­ment Notice if the plan­ning author­ity believes there is a need for the advert­ise­ment to be removed or altered in the interests of pub­lic safety, or if the advert­ise­ment can be removed without any oth­er work being required.

An Enforce­ment Notice can also state that a par­tic­u­lar piece of land should not be used to dis­play advert­ise­ments. This remains in force even if the ori­gin­al advert­ise­ment is removed. Any sub­sequent advert­ising on this site would amount to a breach of the notice.

Plan­ning author­it­ies also have powers to remove or des­troy plac­ards and posters that do not have advert­ise­ment con­sent. If the per­son who put up the poster can be iden­ti­fied, they have to be giv­en at least two days’ notice that the plan­ning author­ity intends to take the poster down. If they can­not be iden­ti­fied, then the advert can be removed immediately.

If neces­sary, the plan­ning author­ity officers can enter unoc­cu­pied land to remove an advert­ise­ment but have no powers to remove advert­ise­ments dis­played with­in a build­ing which has no pub­lic access.

Tree Pro­tec­tion

It is an offence to carry out works to or fell a tree pro­tec­ted by a TPO (Tree Pre­ser­va­tion Order) or with­in a con­ser­va­tion area. If pro­sec­uted, this can res­ult in a fine being imposed by the Court. Replace­ment trees are also required. Fail­ure to pro­tect trees and/​or to cause dam­age to/​fell trees covered by a con­di­tion in a plan­ning per­mis­sion is also a breach of plan­ning con­trol. A Breach of Con­di­tion Notice may be served.

Oth­er Powers

Plan­ning Con­tra­ven­tion Notice — this is used to obtain inform­a­tion about activ­it­ies on land where a breach of plan­ning con­trol is sus­pec­ted. It is served on the own­er or occu­pi­er, on a per­son with any oth­er interest in the land or who is car­ry­ing out oper­a­tions on the land. They are required to provide the inform­a­tion reques­ted. Fail­ure to com­ply with the notice with­in 21 days of it being served or know­ingly provid­ing false or mis­lead­ing inform­a­tion is also an offence and can lead to a fine in the Courts.

Notice under Sec­tion 272 (of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997) – this provides lim­ited powers for plan­ning author­it­ies to obtain inform­a­tion on interests in land and the use of land. Fail­ure to provide the inform­a­tion required is an offence.

Amen­ity Notice under Sec­tion 179 (of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997) – this allows plan­ning author­it­ies to serve a notice on the own­er, less­ee or occu­pi­er of land which is adversely affect­ing the amen­ity of the area. This notice sets out the action that needs to be taken to resolve the prob­lem with­in a spe­cified period.

Inter­dict and Inter­im Inter­dict – plan­ning author­it­ies can apply for the courts to impose an inter­dict to stop or pre­vent a breach of plan­ning con­trol. Court pro­ceed­ings can be expens­ive and there is a risk that the plan­ning author­ity may be liable for dam­ages. There­fore, the plan­ning author­ity would nor­mally only seek inter­dicts in ser­i­ous cases or where Enforce­ment Notices have pre­vi­ously been ignored. How­ever, the plan­ning author­ity can seek an inter­dict in rela­tion to any breach without hav­ing to use oth­er powers first. Breach­ing an inter­dict is treated as a con­tempt of court and car­ries heavy penalties.

Dir­ect Action — fail­ure to com­ply with the terms of an Enforce­ment Notice with­in the time spe­cified can res­ult in the plan­ning author­ity car­ry­ing out the spe­cified work. The plan­ning author­ity can recov­er any costs it incurs from the landowner.

Noti­fic­a­tion of Ini­ti­ation and Com­ple­tion of Devel­op­ment (NID/NCD) and dis­play of notices while devel­op­ment is car­ried out — are not enforce­ment powers. They are inten­ded to improve plan­ning enforce­ment by requir­ing con­firm­a­tion that devel­op­ment has star­ted and been com­pleted, and in the case of on site notices, to raise com­munity aware­ness of devel­op­ments in the loc­al area. They help plan­ning author­it­ies be made aware of act­ive devel­op­ment in their areas.

A NID must be sub­mit­ted to the plan­ning author­ity for any devel­op­ment which has been gran­ted per­mis­sion and state when devel­op­ment will start. It must be sub­mit­ted after plan­ning per­mis­sion has been gran­ted and before devel­op­ment has com­menced. Start­ing devel­op­ment without sub­mit­ting an NID is a breach of plan­ning con­trol and the Plan­ning author­ity may con­sider enforce­ment action.

The NCD requires a developer to sub­mit a fur­ther notice as soon as prac­tic­able after devel­op­ment had been com­pleted. Depend­ing on the nature and scale of a devel­op­ment, the developer may also be required to dis­play on-site notices while devel­op­ment is tak­ing place. These notices con­tain basic inform­a­tion about the site and the devel­op­ment. They also provide con­tact details where mem­bers of the pub­lic may find out more inform­a­tion or report alleged breaches of plan­ning con­trol. It is a breach of plan­ning con­trol to fail to dis­play such a notice when it is required to do so.