Lewisham and planning breaches
Lewisham and planning breaches
Anyone had any experience of dealing with Lewisham council on issues relating to a breach of planning regulations? Are they in any way helpful, or do they just retrospectively approve things in favour of business? I've heard the latter...
Re: Lewisham and planning breaches
Residential or commercial?
Re: Lewisham and planning breaches
Hi Martha,
Lewisham definitely tend to let planning breaches go, mainly because they don’t go and inspect sites. My advice would be to email planning@lewisham.gov.uk AND planningenforcement@lewisham.gov.uk, ccing in your alone. Say there are xxxx planning breaches, and u ma ask them to open an enforcement investigation.
To have any chance of succeeding, you need to list all the breaches you can identify, and mark up photos showing the issues, compared with details from the approved plans. Paste the photos and text into a word document, then save it as a pdf. Lewisham's email system struggles to process photos, so a pdf is best if you have a few images.
I'd be happy to help, if you send me a direct message, and if it's a commercial or non-residential property, do say where it is on the forum. You may not be alone ....
Cheers,
JRW
...
Lewisham definitely tend to let planning breaches go, mainly because they don’t go and inspect sites. My advice would be to email planning@lewisham.gov.uk AND planningenforcement@lewisham.gov.uk, ccing in your alone. Say there are xxxx planning breaches, and u ma ask them to open an enforcement investigation.
To have any chance of succeeding, you need to list all the breaches you can identify, and mark up photos showing the issues, compared with details from the approved plans. Paste the photos and text into a word document, then save it as a pdf. Lewisham's email system struggles to process photos, so a pdf is best if you have a few images.
I'd be happy to help, if you send me a direct message, and if it's a commercial or non-residential property, do say where it is on the forum. You may not be alone ....
Cheers,
JRW
...
Re: Lewisham and planning breaches
Er........ cc in your chosen Councillor.........
Re: Lewisham and planning breaches
It's commercial, but affecting residential.
And JRW, thank you SO much for this extremely helpful advice. I've already emailed Enforcement, but not the generic Planning email. I will do both now! I did have a response from the Council and they *apparently* sent someone, but the builders mysteriously disappeared that day (even though they have been having to live there! I dare say the planning breach is the least of the issues: the builders are being exploited at best, possibly much worse)... A day later, they erected a rather obvious chimney, which is easily visible from all around the street and from our properties. We've taken photos of this and sent them, and not much has happened at the problem site since. That was last week - but we haven't had anything from the Council at all for some time. I am hoping the property owner, who is in another city, has at least realised they will need to apply for permission before they do anything else, but I am not at all confident we'll be able to fight it.
Anyway, venting as much as anything! Thank you so much. Any other advice gratefully received!
Martha
And JRW, thank you SO much for this extremely helpful advice. I've already emailed Enforcement, but not the generic Planning email. I will do both now! I did have a response from the Council and they *apparently* sent someone, but the builders mysteriously disappeared that day (even though they have been having to live there! I dare say the planning breach is the least of the issues: the builders are being exploited at best, possibly much worse)... A day later, they erected a rather obvious chimney, which is easily visible from all around the street and from our properties. We've taken photos of this and sent them, and not much has happened at the problem site since. That was last week - but we haven't had anything from the Council at all for some time. I am hoping the property owner, who is in another city, has at least realised they will need to apply for permission before they do anything else, but I am not at all confident we'll be able to fight it.
Anyway, venting as much as anything! Thank you so much. Any other advice gratefully received!
Martha
Re: Lewisham and planning breaches
Lewisham Council deliberately and flagrantly fail to observe planning laws. Officers are allowed to approve developments where there are objections from immediate neighbours. Consultation requirements are not enforced. Local councillors do not answer correspondence, nor officers, nor the so-called mayor.