New information is always sought for IHBC’s ‘LB Prosecutions Database’ so if you have been involved with a case please forward the details to Bob Kindred, who complies the list, at government@ihbc.org.uk, and who offers readers an review and update below.
The database, established 26 years ago, contains hundreds of case sentences and is accessible on-line.
EXPLORE THE IHBC PROSECUTIONS DATABASE
Bob Kindred writes: The Institute notes that perseverance eventually pays off. When North Devon DC served a Listed Building Enforcement Notice in 2021 requiring the reinstatement within 12 months of a historic balcony on a listed building in Ilfracombe and offered assistance that was not taken up, the council successfully prosecuted the owners in Barnstaple Magistrates’ Court at the Exeter Combined Court Centre in March. This is the first LB prosecution brought by North Devon to appear on the national Database.
Readers are reminded that successful prosecutions for listed building offences have often found the IHBC’s on-line UK LB Prosecutions Database invaluable in briefing local authority legal and/or enforcement teams; and that the Database and its companion resource Historic England ‘Heritage Crime Guidance for Sentencers’ have been equally helpful to the courts when considering sentencing. Other guidance on this subject also appears in the IHBC Toolbox.
The Database is there to help you. Started in 1996 to provide comparative data, it relies on volunteered information from our members; however, the Institute has noted recently that some local authority prosecutions have been successfully concluded but the details have not been forwarded the to us and we have been reliant instead on the hit-and-miss coverage from local newspapers and can’t follow up if either our Database or the HE advice has been useful to the LPA of the courts. In informing IHBC directly we can follow particularly cases resulting in low fines, to see if these were informed (or not) by the database or the Historic England guidance.
If you have been involved with a case that is not on the Database, please forward the details to government@ihbc.org.uk preferably with the data used in the online table and additional information e.g., a guilty plea or observations by the court, a press release or photos is always informative.
‘You are urged to send data of recent cases (or old ones that may have been missed) directly to IHBC in the format used on-line to government@ihbc.org.uk’
View the IHBC LB Prosecutions Database
Visit the IHBC Listed Buildings Database Commentary
For the ‘Heritage Crime Guidance for Sentencers 2017’ see the IHBC NewsBlog
