Enforcement of Planning Regulations:

Valid complaints in writing relating to non-compliance with planning permissions or unauthorised development are accepted by the Planning Authority.

On receipt of a valid complaint, the Enforcement Officer carries out an inspection and a course of action is recommended. Every effort is made by the Department to encourage compliance with Planning Legislation without having to resort to enforcement action. However, enforcement action is taken in a number of cases in order to resolve the matter.

1. Part VIII of the Planning & Development Act 2000 which came into effect on the 11th March 2002, is more streamlined than the provisions set out in the 1963 and 1976 Planning Acts. It sets out an enforcement regime based on three mechanisms:
   
   Criminal prosecution
   
   Enforcement Notice Procedures
   
   Planning Injunction
   
2. It is more responsive to written complaints from the public and obliges the Planning Authority to consider and respond within set timeframes. For example where on receipt of such complaints which are not vexatious, frivolous or without substance or where it appears to the Planning Authority, that unauthorised development may have been/is being made/may be carried out, the Authority must (unless of a trivial/minor nature) issue a Warning Letter within 6 weeks.
3. Persons served with the Warning Letter may within 4 weeks (from date of issue of WL) make written submission on the purported offence.
4. It shall be an objective of the Planning Authority, having carried out the necessary investigation and having considered any written submissions, to decide to issue (or not issue) an Enforcement Notice, within 12 weeks of the issue of the Warning Letter.
5. In urgent cases, where due to the nature of the unauthorised development or any other material considerations, the Planning Authority deems it necessary to take urgent action, it may dispense with the issue of a Warning Letter and proceed directly to the issue of an Enforcement Notice.
6. The new regime incorporates a new philosophy of Regulatory compliance, where for example no enforcement action may be stayed/withdrawn by reason of an application for or the grant of retention permission. It is therefore not a defence for the defendant to prove that they have applied for or have been granted planning permission.
7. It also incorporates the ‘polluter pays principle’, as persons engaged in unauthorised development are required to pay full costs incurred by the Planning Authority, in investigating and enforcing the breach.
8. It also has a greater deterrent effect with a significant increase in the fines payable, which are now payable directly to the Planning Authority.
9. It also contains a ‘reverse onus’ provision whereby the onus is on the defendant to prove that the ‘unauthorised’ development is either an exempted development or that a planning permission exists.
10. In the case of an offence being committed by a corporate body or by any person acting its behalf and is proven to be committed by the consent and connivance or approval of any person (being a Director or other officer of the body), that person is also guilty of an offence.
11. In May 2002 a new Planning Enforcement IT System was installed by the Local Government Computer Services Board, in liaison the Council’s IT Department and is being used to administer the City Council’s Planning Enforcement Process.
12. Compliance with conditions including planning development contributions, bonds in respect of housing estates are also administered by this section.

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