Bradford Council set to ignore minor planning breaches

8:20am Wednesday 16th May 2012 in Bradford Photograph of the Author By Jo Winrow, City Hall Reporter

Bradford Council is set to make major changes to the types of planning breaches it investigates as its team of enforcement staff is overwhelmed by a massively increased workload.

At the moment the authority aims to investigate all legitimate complaints about unauthorised developments, changes of uses and potential breaches of planning consents and conditions.

But in the past ten years the number of such complaints being dealt with by the planning department has more than doubled, reaching 1,712 complaints last year.

With fewer than six full-time enforcement officers, planning bosses want to change what cases it prioritises, which could see complaints about relatively low-level breaches not even registered.

Senior planning enforcement officer Ian Horsfall states in a report: “Given the fact that the overall workload has more than doubled in the last ten years it’s not hard to see why officers can’t act as quickly as members might expect.

“In this financially-difficult climate it seems unlikely that additional resources will be recruited into the planning enforcement team. Therefore it is proposed that the existing priorities are changed to try and ease the pressure on existing workloads, whilst retaining a focus on regeneration objectives for the district.”

The proposed priorities would focus on health and safety matters; listed buildings, conservation areas and trees protected by a tree preservation order; transport corridors, gateways and high public amenity areas; and issues that have an adverse impact on the street scene.

Those issues that would not be normally investigated, unless they are in any of the above priority areas, include: domestic sheds, garages, fencing and walling to the rear and side of homes; dormer windows that would be permitted development but the materials do not match the existing roof; unauthorised roller shutters where the shutter box is internal and the shutter, guides and box are powder coated; all signs; and satellite dishes.

Comments(27)

Blotto says...
10:38am Wed 16 May 12

So begins the official start of 3rd world shanty town encampments!

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Albion. says...
10:56am Wed 16 May 12

No change there then.

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yorkshiredude says...
10:58am Wed 16 May 12

The power of cuts to local government...

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Albion. says...
11:01am Wed 16 May 12

yorkshiredude wrote:
The power of cuts to local government...
How can you blame the cuts, it's been like that for years (carwash, bazzare etc).

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angry bradfordian says...
11:02am Wed 16 May 12

How about increasing the cost of a planning application to cover the cost of more staff;
And why do the council think that more planning officers are of less importance that diversity, equality & sustainability non jobs.

And who have they consulted before deciding to allow a free-for -all?

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jonathancrewdson says...
11:30am Wed 16 May 12

If the Council has a legal duty to uphold the integrity of the planning system then this could be a breach of that duty. I appreciate in times of austerity they need to prioritise their workload but there must be other ways of doing this such as pulling staff in from other departments with less workload or less important duties. With a little training they could at least investigate each minor complaint and report back to the planning officers.

Planning Aid offers training on stuff to do with the planning system to community groups and the Localism Act is supposed to be devolving minor planning applications to neighbourhoods anyway through either parish councils or specially recognised neighbourhood planning forums. Why not look at building this up as a way of filling the gap? We could have a network of neighbourhood groups across the district working a bit like neighbourhood watch schemes but for planning.

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Albion. says...
11:42am Wed 16 May 12

angry bradfordian wrote:
How about increasing the cost of a planning application to cover the cost of more staff;
And why do the council think that more planning officers are of less importance that diversity, equality & sustainability non jobs.

And who have they consulted before deciding to allow a free-for -all?
You would probably end up with even less applications.

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Mike Strutter says...
12:04pm Wed 16 May 12

Why go public on this and let every Tom, Dick & Harry know their strategy ?

Now it's going to be a free for all with people knowing they can get away with it whereby if they had kept it quiet at least people would know there was a chance that their applications were being looked at.

Shoddy

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a reasonable sort of chap says...
12:14pm Wed 16 May 12

A free for all. Great. If the Council can't cope due to staff shortages, and we have high unemployment, then they should employ 100 more planning officers.

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somewhereinbradford says...
1:55pm Wed 16 May 12

Says it all really!!! They have scant regard for this district anyway!! Allowing planning approval for the wind mast on Thornton moor last month proved that!! I'm guessing the illegally erected wind mast on green belt
Land behind Keelham Hall farm shop will be allowed to stay in situ now then too... Isn't this announcement just a tad too convenient?????? Greasy palms........

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legallyblonde says...
2:20pm Wed 16 May 12

Can you imagine the eyesores that will be erected now.

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somewhereinbradford says...
4:18pm Wed 16 May 12

If they don't have time to investigate and enforce, how will they decide what is worth ignoring or enforcing??? This is just ridiculous!!

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flogem says...
4:39pm Wed 16 May 12

Why have they allowed a backlog over the last 10 years to build up.If this was a private company it would never have been allowed to happen.I think we all know who will benifit from this as the seem to ignore planning already.

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cockadoodledo says...
6:19pm Wed 16 May 12

Looks like build what you want, no one cares and you'll get away with it!

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craftykhan says...
6:28pm Wed 16 May 12

Bradford had one of the worst planning departments in the country and now it will be on top of the league..wow..!

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Clowny says...
6:35pm Wed 16 May 12

Mike Strutter wrote:
Why go public on this and let every Tom, Dick & Harry know their strategy ?

Now it's going to be a free for all with people knowing they can get away with it whereby if they had kept it quiet at least people would know there was a chance that their applications were being looked at.

Shoddy
My thought too.

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Thee Voice of Reason says...
7:16pm Wed 16 May 12

Is the full blown market bazaar in lidget green classed as a minor infringement hemce why nothing has been done.

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Shadow07 says...
7:36pm Wed 16 May 12

If they spent less time stiking and worrying about their pensions and more time working they wouldn't have a back log. My other half works with residents throughout the UK and Bradford are seen as a laughing stock. Having experienced them first hand. I've found they are controlling in the extreme; if you are local you cant get planning permission yet big companies can appear on the seen and don't appear to have the same problem. If you read the article nothing much will change, planning permission for a garden shed! What a joke its not a permanent structure. The price of planning applications is expensive enough. The whole planning system needs stream lining and private sector managers need to be recruited to go and sort the dinosaurs out. I recently went to the planning dept to seek advice on something that doesn't need planning permission to be told by the duty planning officer that he didn't know and I would have go away and research it for myself, no wonder people get this wrong.

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Wakeywakey says...
7:39pm Wed 16 May 12

Once the Council started allowing small terrace houses to become shops and let the shopkeepers put their goods
on the pavement "a la Bangaladesh" style the die was cast.

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Patrick Bateman says...
3:17am Thu 17 May 12

Where is the accountability here? Surely the department can't just raise the white flag and absolve itself of its responsibilities. It's hard to believe that this is even legal: don't they have a statutory responsibility to at least APPEAR to be upholding the law? This dumb announcement will no doubt give the green light to any old chancer who hitherto might have thought twice about knocking up some monstrous extension or other.

Christ, if things weren't bad enough in Bradford already..

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Patrick Bateman says...
3:20am Thu 17 May 12

You don't suppose this decision was taken as part of Bradford's strategy to address the local housing shortage problem do you?

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Apollo says...
7:32am Thu 17 May 12

We will see more of the Taliban architecture now.

Rip out the front garden, block pave for car parking, build high walls (a la a compound), metal gates and fences along top of walls etc.

I pay Bradford Council for enforcement - not for some of the loony wastes of money I actually get including the puddle.

How many Enforcement Officers could you have got for £44m?

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angry bradfordian says...
7:54am Thu 17 May 12

Yesterday the council were making 'major changes' and today they are 'insignificant'

What's changed in 24 hours?

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somewhereinbradford says...
10:22am Thu 17 May 12

How long will it take for this attitude to carry across to other public services i.e. police... A breach is a breach like a crime is a crime. You cannot have a discretion based system!! We already see abuse of the planning system... If this change goes through you might as well save yourselves some real cash and get rid of the planning department all together for the use it will serve!!! Bye bye Bradford it was nice knowing you.

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flogem says...
10:59am Thu 17 May 12

This is councillor Greens version of Regeneration, build what you like where you like.

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menstonian says...
5:47pm Thu 17 May 12

If Bradford's Planning Officers weren't so completely useless, they would have time to do all the things they're supposed to do. However, they take short cuts on every occasion and this just gets them tangled up with appeals etc. it's time they had the decency to resign and then Bradford could recruit some competent people.

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ANY WHERE BUT HERE says...
7:16pm Mon 21 May 12

Finally we find out why a house on parkside road has been turned into a madrass, there neighbour told me they were going to turn there garden into a pig sty seems like there wont be a problem with that either. Also over the road from the BRI a pub closed down squatters got in lived there for a while and have now turned it into a shop, how BAZAAR.

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