Cheshire East Council is warning developers to stick to their promises when it comes to planning conditions – or face a crackdown to halt developments.
Councillor Toni Fox, the authority's cabinet member for planning, said tough enforcement action will be taken if developers continue to flout agreements and treat planning conditions 'as a tick-box exercise'.
Cheshire East remains one of the busiest planning authorities in the country and has been subject to a significant number of housing applications.
Planning permission is often granted 'subject to conditions', which enable the detail of the development to be agreed either before the work begins or by a set time within the construction process. These conditions can range from agreeing the colour of materials, through to technical matters involving contaminated land and drainage.
Cllr Fox said: "Since becoming the portfolio holder for planning in May, I have been contacted on numerous occasions by residents about developments starting before all the details have been agreed. Officers work hard on getting the detail on conditions discharged but all too often they face an uphill battle as developers continue to build.
"This has led to enforcement action and increasing disillusion among residents and our communities, who are coming to feel that the planning conditions imposed by the council are being disregarded by developers and are becoming tick-box exercises that mean little.
"The council wishes to work collaboratively with developers but it has to be within the bounds of the statutory processes. If not, then the system as a whole becomes undermined and trust from residents lost.
"I am, therefore, working with the council's acting head of planning to ensure that the appropriate priority is given to the discharge of conditions and openly advising developers that, if they do not get their appropriate permissions in place, then the council will seek to use its enforcement powers to stop construction."
Comments
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The developers need to understand that permission is not a right and is a contract when agreed.
Councils should withdraw permission and make the offending companies make good the land back to how it was previously. They should should be allowed to issue fines to cover Council admin costs and place embargo’s on constant offenders planning requests in future.