Barnsley Council serves fifth most planning enforcement notices outside of London

Enforcement notices are legal documents requiring developers to take action to resolve a breach of planning control.

They have the power to stop building work or to alter or demolish a building, if planning breach can be proven.

In Barnsley, the planning team issued nine stop or temporary stop notices to developers, four breach of condition notices and 23 planning contravention notices.

This was the fifth-highest in England, second highest in Yorkshire, and highest in South Yorkshire.

Joe Jenkinson, head of planning at Barnsley Council, told a planning meeting yesterday (October 27) that the number of notices issued were”not necessarily driven by the number of complaints”, but were “driven by a culture of being prepared to tackle” planning breaches.

“We’ should never be afraid to serve notices,” Mr Jenkinson added.

“We wanted to try and get the message out to people that Barnsley isn’t going to tolerate unauthorised development, and that we will serve notices.

“Hopefully getting getting another enforcement officer in post as of next Monday will allow us to push this agenda even further and uphold the integrity of the system.”