Report a breach of planning control
Click on the "Report it" link in the right hand column to report suspected breaches of planning control. You can also contact us to request a form. The completed form will give us all of the information needed to begin an investigation.
Before reporting a suspected breach, please see our Breaches of planning control page to check which types of breaches we deal with. Some will need to be dealt with privately or by Buckinghamshire County Council.
Confidentiality and data protection
Under the Data Protection Act and the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the name and address of the person making the complaint, or any other contact details, will not be disclosed. The only exception to this is when we are taking formal action and you have been asked to collect evidence to support your complaint.
In these cases you may be asked to give evidence at a hearing. You will be asked beforehand if you are prepared to do so. Most complaints are dealt with without the need for formal action.
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we have to make information publicly available; such as, where there has been a complaint and what the complaint is about. Formal notices served and a list of people served with the notice are also public documents.
We do not follow up anonymous complaints. For an explanation, please download our planning enforcement statement of service provision below.
Procedure
We can only take action if there has been a breach of planning control. We will check this by visiting the property. If the complaint involves a building, we can quickly assess if there has been a breach. If the complaint involves the use of a property, we may have to monitor it for a few weeks to make an assessment. We may also ask for your help to collect evidence of unauthorised use.
If there is a breach, we consider if it would be likely to get planning permission. If it might, we will invite an application, on which you would be consulted. Letters about planning applications are available to the public.
If an application is not submitted, we will then consider if it is in the public interest to take formal action. If we do not feel planning permission would be granted and the breach causes harm in planning terms, we will take formal action.
Complaints that lead to an investigation are recorded and published on our PublicAccess for planning website under "enforcement search". You will need to accept the terms and conditions before using the website. PublicAccess terms and conditions
How long does the process take?
We will acknowledge your complaint by letter within two working days of receiving it. We will visit the site and contact you with an update. Timescales vary depending on the need for further evidence.
If formal action is needed, it can take several months or even years (in complex cases) to satisfactorily resolve problems.
What if a complaint has been made about me?
We recognise that some breaches of the planning rules are genuine mistakes, where people don't know they need permission. We also recognise some people deliberately abuse the system.
Once a site is under investigation, this fact will be available to the general public through our PublicAccess for planning website.
You may be given the opportunity to apply for retrospective planning permission. If this is appropriate, it is beneficial to apply. For example, an unauthorised extension could cause problems if you try to sell your home in the future.
If you have breached planning control and we don't think you would get permission, you will be asked to put the situation right. This could involve stopping the use, pulling down or reducing the size of an unauthorised building. If you do nothing to put the situation right, then we will consider taking formal action.
Taking formal action
We will start formal action when negotiations to resolve a complaint have failed. We will then serve legal notices requiring the breach of planning control to stop.
If the legal notices are not complied with, we can take court action. This could result in a significant fine. In some cases, we may consider taking direct action such as demolishing an unauthorised building and then reclaim the costs. In extreme cases we can consider serving an injunction. Failure to comply with this could lead to a prison sentence. In most cases there is a right of appeal against the legal notices that are served by us.