A burntwood man, Jim Horton of Rake Hill, has been prosecuted for running a caravan site on land at A & J vehicles in New Road without a license. He has run the site at the back of industrial units since 1996 and continued after a warning from Lichfield District Council in 2007.
I have been aware of complaints regarding the multiple uses of the site from council minutes, but the timescale required to bring an illegal activity under control is staggering! Eleven years for the council to issue a warning (granted I don’t know when it was first brought to the Coucil’s attention), a further 3.5 years to prosecute and how long will the enforcement action take following the successful prosecution?
I think the planning control and enforcement procedures in the UK need tightening up. It’s OK having rules about what can and cannot be done with a property or business but if the rules are repeatedly ignored, something needs to be done a lot quicker than 14 years!
Planners and Councils- don’t they just do your nut in?