Report an alleged breach of planning

The council takes breaches of planning control very seriously and relies on, in part, the public reporting any suspected breaches of planning control. Most of our complaints come from neighbours or Councillors, as well as from officers.

If you think someone has breached planning regulations, you can report it using this form.

Before you start, things you need to know:

We will not get involved with neighbour disputes about:

• investigation of land ownership
• boundary disputes (such as high hedges or boundary walls)

If you are in a dispute, we recommend that you try and resolve it with your neighbour.

For more information about planning breach enforcement, visit our planning enforcement actions page.

High hedges

For information about high hedges, visit the GOV.UK high hedges page.

Boundary walls

This is not a planning enforcement matter. It is a civil matter, and we recommend that you seek independent legal advice.

What information do you need?

It is helpful if you can provide as much information as possible, including:

• the address of the land or building of the alleged breach
• owner and occupier of the site of the alleged breach (if known)
• enforcement complaint and details of any problems of the alleged breach including when the activities started
• your name
• your address
• your contact number

These details are kept confidential and are not made known to the person who carried out the breach. If however you wish to remain anonymous we respect your rights, but we will be unable to provide you with any further information on the progress or outcome of our investigations.

We do not normally investigate an anonymous complaint unless we consider the subject of the complaint to merit urgent attention, such as a potential threat to a listed building or protected trees. We will use our discretion on whether anonymous complaints will be investigated.

How quickly will my complaint be investigated?

We take all allegations of possible breaches of planning control seriously and will investigate complaints as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

We will normally initiate an investigation of a case within 10 working days. As we will normally contact the landowner/contravener and make arrangements to visit the site at a mutually convenient where it is not possible to view from the public highway and take measurements and photographs as necessary to support our investigation. We may wish to visit you to assess the effect the alleged breach is having upon your amenity.

If we consider the breach to be more serious we will investigate it immediately, such as a potential threat to a listed building or protected trees.

Report an alleged planning breach

If you wish to report an alleged planning breach, please fill in our online form, you will receive an application number. If you provide us with an email address an automated confirmation of your request will be sent to you.