When the council offices are closed, what can you do?

Q: Over the weekend, gypsies and travellers laid hardcore over a greenfield site. What action could we have taken, given that the local authority offices were closed? 

A: Gypsies and travellers have been known occasionally to take advantage of weekends or public holidays to develop areas of land without planning permission.

In most cases the gypsies or travellers own the land in question. If so, there are several options.

1. Some local authorities have an out-of-hours enforcement officer, who sould be notified as soon as possible.
2. If your local planning authority does not have an out-of-hours officer, contact them as soon as possible once office hours have resumed, and they can then issue an injunction, a temporary stop notice and/or an enforcement notice.
3. Local planning authorities have the power to apply to the courts for any anticipated or actual breach of planning control to be restrained by injunction. This power is at the court's discretion. Helpfully, injunctions can be issued against a person whose identity is unknown.
4. A temporary stop notice stops development immediately following its issue and for a further 28 days.
   
5. An enforcement notice stops development and can also require the site to be reinstated to its former condition.
6. The person issued with an enforcement notice can appeal against it and continue the development during the appeal against it, so it is advisable to issue both a temporary stop notice and enforcement notice together.
7. If the gypsies or travellers do not own the land, the police have the powers to remove trespassers on land under section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, although certain conditions apply.
8. An effective long term solution is often for local planning authorities to use their development plans to identify and provide authorised gypsy and traveller sites.