Revised Planning Enforcement Charter 2023
It was agreed at a meeting of the Economy, Community Empowerment and Wealth Building Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel on 8 November 2022 to consult on the revised Planning Enforcement Charter.
West Lothian Council's Planning Enforcement team have launched a six-week consultation on the revised Enforcement Charter and welcomes comments from members of the public, Community Councils and our partner services within the Council before 24 February 2023.
Planning legislation gives local authorities enforcement powers to deal with a range of unauthorised land use activities. These generally involve the failure to obtain planning consent in advance of carrying out works or changes of use on land or to property, or failure to comply with a condition of a planning consent. However, the powers also extend into actions which give rise to a loss of amenity and limited powers are available to the planning authority to deal with land or property which is being kept in an untidy or derelict state and is resulting in a loss of amenity to the area.
The council is required, under section 158A of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, to produce and distribute an enforcement charter, which sets out:
a statement of the authority's policies for taking enforcement action;
an account of how members of the public are to bring any suspected breach of planning control to the attention of the council;
how any complaint to the authority over a suspected breach is to be made; and the council's procedures for dealing with any such complaint.
A survey has been created to allow comments to be submitted online by 4 pm on Friday 24 February 2023. The link to the survey can be found below:
The results of the survey will be considered alongside other consultation responses received and may result in amendments being made to the final document. Should participants have any enquires relating to the survey theses should be sent to the enforcement team via email to planningenforcement@westlothian.gov.uk and a member of the team will respond.
For a summary of the changes to the Enforcement Charter you can refer to Section D2 (specifically page 3 ) of the report below which was prepared for the Economy, Community Empowerment and Wealth Building Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel.
