 |
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 10:52 AM
|
|
Mr Dennington - thanks for the reply!
I agree that one way to deal with this would be through the High Court. However, we have (rightly in my opinion) taken the decision that the case is not so significant as to warrant the expense of High Court action.
Whilst I agree that it seems somewhat incorrect that authorities should be able to withdraw notices in these circumstances, I am not aware of any legislation that prevents it. Indeed, presumably such notices can be withdrawn when they have been complied with (obviously this would only be considered in circumstances where there is minimal prospect of a repeat of the breach the subject of the notice...)
I reckon that the circumstances here are somewhat unusual - enforcement appeals normally finish with either the appellant or the authority winning, or a bit of a draw with part of the notice quashed, and part upheld.
Where enforcement notices are not wholly quashed by the inspector, 99.99% of the time it is in the authority's interests to keep them in place, to secure compliance and remedy the breach. If an Inspector grants planning permission for any breach in a notice, and quashes the notice or deletes the breach, the authority can't then withdraw the notice and re-serve it, as you can't enforce against something that has got planning permission.
In this instance, the Inspector has left the notice in place, but has totally mucked it up. Keeping the notice in place would not therefore be in the interests of my authority, as it potentially allows (as the result of the error) a better situation for the appellant than what the Inspector obviously intended.
As we have ruled out a high court challenge, I believe that withdrawal of the notice is the best way forward.
Any comments?
|
