We aim to:

Keep you informed

You can contact the case officer at any stage to discuss progress. 
When appropriate, we will contact you as follows:

Person who made the complaint

• we acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 3 working days, giving the name and telephone number of the case officer
• on completion of the initial investigation to advise of the conclusion reached, the reason and/or the action to be taken
• if we receive an application, giving you an opportunity to comment
• if we authorise and issue formal enforcement action
• when we close the investigation, explaining the reason

Person who is suspected of a breach

• if we need to visit the site or request information to establish whether a breach has occurred
• on completion of the initial investigation to advise of the conclusion reached, the reason and/or the action to be taken
• if enforcement action is authorised

Prioritise and meet the following targets

Some complaints relate to works that may be causing irreversible harm or where prompt action may prevent the growth of the breach and it is important that we deal with these quickly.  Accordingly, we prioritise and deal with new complaints as follows:

Priority	Description	Site visit within	Complete initial investigation within	Decide line of action within
1	Ongoing works to listed buildings, trees or hedgerows	24 hours	3 working days	6 working days
2	Building work in progress and uses causing serious harm	5 working days	10 working days	15 working days
3	All other planning related queries	10 working days	20 working days	30 working days

Some other things you can expect from us:

• everyone (both complainants and those suspected of a breach) will receive the same standard of courteous and impartial professional service at all times
• we keep complainants’ details confidential
• if we cannot deal with a complaint we will pass it on to the relevant service in AVDC or the County Council, or advise you of who you should contact
• wherever possible, we give the owner/occupier an initial opportunity to resolve the matter through negotiation
• where we invite a planning application and it is submitted within the timescale set, we usually suspend enforcement action pending our decision on the application
• we are open to meaningful negotiations to remedy a breach even after formal action has been commenced

You can download a complete copy of our planning enforcement policies, procedures and standards below.

Date Updated: 20/03/08

Downloads:

File name	Summary	File size / Download time	File Format
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Policies, procedures and standards		129KB 56Kbps Modem: Less than 1 Minute Broadband : Less than 1 Minute
Policies, procedures and standards	Enforcement charter	129KB 56Kbps Modem: Less than 1 Minute Broadband : Less than 1 Minute