Several local and national media outlets have been reporting on planning enforcement issues recently, with a record fine under action being taken over flats erected without permission; issues with security shutters on shops; debates on the colour and decoration of properties, and including positive news on the renovation of listed properties at risk.
Hackney Council writes:
A private developer who defied planning law to build an illegal six-storey block of flats has been ordered to confiscate a UK record-breaking sum for a planning offence.
The owner of 34 privately-rented flats illegally benefited from the use of the property that was built without planning permission. Garland Development Limited, and the company’s sole director Yusuf Sarodia, were sentenced in November this year for the offence of failing to demolish the property, located in Hackney’s Hoxton area, after the Council served an enforcement notice in August 2011.
As part of the case, the Council made an application to the Court to confiscate money illegally made from the building under the Proceeds of Crime Act. In August this year the Court made a confiscation order in the sum of £700,000.
The confiscation order is believed to be one of the biggest ever handed down for a planning crime. The Council will receive one third of this with the other two thirds split between the Court and the Treasury. Money received by the Council will be reinvested back into the services that brought the developer to justice.
At present, Garland and Sarodia have yet to demolish the property. The Council will consider further enforcement if action is not taken.
A selection of other media reports relating to planning enforcement include:
- Metro– ‘London developer given record breaking fine after building six-storey block without permission’
- Telegraph and Argus– ‘Shopkeepers lock horns with Bradford Council over use of security shutters’
- Mail Online ‘Property owner battles demand to repaint her red-and-white striped multi-million-pound Kensington townhouse which infuriated her super-rich neighbours’
- Hereford Times– ‘Colour row pub tones down exterior’
- Warrington Guardian ‘No planning permission in place for retractable roof at Piccolino – council may take action’
- Get West London– ‘Legal action prompts owners to revamp run-down homes in historic Holland Park’
View the press release
