PLANNERS have refused to determine a retrospective planning application for a container on a car park area – because they have already begun enforcement action to have it removed.

A shipping container type unit has been on a concreted area on Girlington Road, next to a row of terraced homes, for well over a year.

The site is sloped, and the container is seemingly propped up by stone blocks to keep the container level.

A retrospective planning application to keep the container on the site was recently submitted to Bradford Council by Hafeez Javed.

The application says the unit will be storage for a sweet shop – although signage on the side of the container has the branding “City Chaii.”

Last month, planning officers made the unusual decision to refuse to even consider the application – pointing out they have already issued an enforcement notice demanding the structure be removed.

The notice says the container is “detrimental to visual amenity by virtue of its position, design and appearance, forming an incongruous feature on the street scene.”

The enforcement notice ordered the structure be demolished and all materials associated with it be removed from the land within one calendar month – with the notice issued on June 15.

The notice adds: “Failure to comply with an enforcement notice which has taken effect can result in prosecution and/or remedial action by the Council."

When the Telegraph & Argus visited the site on Tuesday afternoon, the structure was still in place.

The retrospective planning application for the unit was submitted to Bradford Council early last month, and if approved would have allowed the unit to remain on the site.

But because the plans were identical to what officers had already issued an enforcement notice against, they declined to make a decision on the application, effectively meaning the plans have been withdrawn.

Declining to decide on the retrospective application, officers said: “The submission of this new application follows the issuing of an enforcement notice by the Local Planning Authority.

“This letter constitutes formal notification that the Local Planning Authority has exercised its power under Section 70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to decline to determine your application.

“These powers allow the Local Planning Authority to decline to determine an application for planning permission which is the same or substantially similar in principle to an application that is subject to an enforcement notice.”