The enforcement officer is coming!

[Daniël Bos]

In our locality, the planning enforcement officers and the planning development officers are like worlds apart.

 

We've had a visit from the enforcement team who showed up unannounced, overweight men in badly fitting leather jackets dropping the occasional "D'you remember when we had to close down so-and-so's business? messy that got...!" almost farcically desperately trying to assert some sort of authority. They insisted the activities we undertake at ours were of an industrial nature and therefore we must apply for change of use from agricultural.

 

We maintain our activities are agricultural (we teach alternative agricultural practices and related skills etc).

 

Then when we went to see the planning officers, they were kindness themselves and helpful well beyond the "call of duty" copying forms, helping us to fill them out, weeding out what is and isn't relevant etc. They told us we'd never need change of use as it was obviously just a diversification of our agricultural activities....

 

The next communication we had was the enforcement officers asking us (with very thinly veiled menace) why we hadn't applied for change of use yet and that we had 1 week to sort it or else...

 

Went back to the planning officer who again confirmed we'd not need change of use.

 

 

The enforcement officers are supposed to serve the need of the planning officers as far as I can work out the chain of command, "in the field" however it seems they act as quite differing organisations.

[wills-mill]

Reading about everyone's different experiences, maybe it's best to find businesses nearby who have had dealings with your local authority. Have a chat and get a feel for how they think the relevant planning bods work.

[rustcutter]

I remember some years ago. There was a complaint against myself and my mother that we were running separate and unrelated businesses from my mothers cottage which was not far from the village but completely rural and not overlooked. I had a few machines about the place and used to do some mechanical work, tree work and stump removal when I was "under-employed" between contracts which took me all over the place for varying amounts of time. My mothers business; dog clipping was the small type of thing which very importantly requires no special modification to the building like a office or workshop and she generally operated mobile anyway.

She phoned me one day to tell me that a council official had been and announced that more than one local resident had complained about our operations which in all honesty couldn't have offended anybody; but some of the closer but not near neighbours were ***** of that type although we were not outsiders and quite well though of in the wider locality mainly farmers who I'd worked for in some capacity as mechanic or just bale humper over the years.

However she was not upset and quite pleased because as she had explained all the machinery was mothballed and only a hobby really as I couldn't possibly be running a business from the property as I was working quite legitimately repairing combine harvesters 250 miles away and would only be back for one weekend every six whole weeks. The official had agreed and said that a few machines in the yard in such a location was in no way a problem even if they were in use and apparently the quite generous log pile wasn't so big as to be an issue; although I would have got about 10 tractor tipping trailer loads "processed" and stacked in the spring slack. She was also quite pleased that when she had explained her dog clipping operation; the official had been most helpful in that such small businesses are very highly thought of in this day and age and she actually would qualify for a grant to improve her facilities, which she did and I'm sure got some great satisfaction about telling everybody in the locality about it too.

I don't see that the O.P. has too much to sweat about if their business has been going that long; it won't hurt to take some advice as has been suggested though. I hope it goes well.