19.09.2020
Week 9 - Still No Enforcement.
As we enter the third month of the illegal use of the Hamptons, many of you are rightly wondering what the Planning Enforcement team are doing. In short, nothing.
If you build an illegal extension or use your residential land for business purposes, the enforcement team would be all over you like a rash. But operate an illegal Place of Worship (during a pandemic no less) and the council go into suspended animation.
Just to clarify, the current building is operating under the Sui Generis building classification which is used when the buildings use falls outside the defined limits of any other use class. It is not a “catch all category”, and additions or changes to the use require planning permission. A Place of Worship is now categorised under a specific stand alone category - F1(f), which superseeds the D1 category (from 01/09/20).
At no point has the Hamptons applied for or been granted a change of use permission to add the Place of Worship element to the building use class.
Last weekend, the management of the Hamptons were claiming “On Fridays the Muslim community pray at the centre because of COVID19 restrictions to the Mosque. This is not an illegal activity. The main hall for many years has been used by various faith groups and non-faith groups”.
About 40 cars today.
We’d like to make two points in response:-
The Chelmsford Mosque in Parkway is Covid secure and open.
Regardless of the use of the main hall by “various faith groups and non faith groups” , the use of the building as a Place of Worship (for which it does not have planning permission) is a breach of the Town and Country Planning Act and is subject to enforcement.
It’s unbelievable that 9 weeks after the initial breach was reported , no action has been taken. Of course the council can decide to take no action, but how about letting the residents know ? The lack of communication from the Planning Department hardly inspires public confidence and fails to meet the governments guidance for effectice enforcement (read here).
Effective enforcement is important to:
tackle breaches of planning control which would otherwise have unacceptable impact on the amenity of the area;
maintain the integrity of the decision-making process;
help ensure that public acceptance of the decision-making process is maintained.
What are you trying to hide ?
Today we had two police officers in attendance, stopping anyone getting too close. And of course the big white vans were there again, obscuring the view to curious residents. Maybe they had something to hide ?
And to cap it all a resident pointed out to the Police that the Hamptons wasn’t a registered Place Of Worship (and not exempt from Covid restrictions), they did the same as the council, nothing !
Angry ?
Fire off some emails :-