planning enforcement

Letters to Enforcement are SUPPOSED to be confidential . I have had experience of LA’s keeping a tight lip …. and others not . You could maybe discreetly take a pic and email your LA under an alias “yahoo” address

from my experience, anonymous objections nearly always are found out… either from LAs letting it slip, someone having an inside track into the LA…

this website has a great explanation of planning complaints… unfortunately sinnerboys way wont work.
http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/developmentplanning/developmentcontrol/enforcementofplanningregulations/planning_enforcement_complaint_form.pdf

as seen from this that the complaint may be accessible under the freedom of information act.

your complaint will be followed by an on-site investigation by the LA, Subsequently, if the development is deemed to be unauthorised, an warning letter will be sent out to the ‘non-compliant party’ requesting him to cease work and solve the problem.

if this guy is involved in illegal activity and you fear repercussions, then i feel for you but i dont have any advise.

Bricktop , henno , an aliased email together with a phone call to enforcement MIGHT work . You may be lucky to speak to more than a simple “jobsworth” who MIGHT act on an anonymous “tip off” .

perhaps that might be the way to go initially, and see if any action takes place. The anonymous phone call might be very enlightening as to what actions the council would take.

Am I the only one that thinks the PA’s refusal to act unless someone writes in formally is unacceptable. Unauthorised development is a criminal act. Can you imagine if the Gardai were tipped off by phonecall about a crime as it was happening but did nothing because they wanted that person to write in – it’s a joke.

I completely agree Barry, however it an endemic problem due to lack of resources. Its happening in almost every aspect of civil service that i can see. It is unacceptable… but in an era where local authorities have to go to poland to interview prospective engineers, its not surprising.

Thanks for the replies, I’ll try pestering the LA anonymously and see how far I get. I also know a guy in a different department and maybe he could have a work in the right ear.

Hi bricktop, if the local authority do not except an anonymous ‘tip off’, just type up a letter under a false name and give a false address. I would be careful about sending any photographs as the position they are taken from is easily worked out, i.e, from your back garden!

Not all planning authorities are the same: Dublin City Council will accept e-mail (and therefore presumably phone) contact re enforcement. The only condition is that the complainant’s postal address is included in the correspondence so that confirmation of receipt can be formally made by letter.

I imagine this is why some local authorities refuse to accept complaints by such means; perhaps they clunkily assume a postal confirmation must be proceeded by a postal complaint?