Ian Butter, who runs his own planning consultancy and whose clients include publicans, said he has dealt with more breaches of planning control in the past 12 months than in the past 12 years, due to an increase in economic pressure impacting on businesses.
“The economic situation has led people to say they can’t spend time getting all the relevant bits of paper so they tend to breach planning control and then worry about it afterwards,” he told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser.
“Because of the economic pressure people are prepared to push the boundaries more than usual.”
'Big issue'
He added that almost any change of development to a building requires planning permission, but lack of awareness among publicans on what they can and cannot do is “a big issue”.
One such publican, Sharon Austin, who owns the George Inn in Chartham, Kent, said she received a letter from Canterbury Council after it received a number of complaints regarding alleged breaches of planning control at her pub.
The pub garden houses six caravans — used for storage, occasional accommodation and office space — as well as an outside toilet and new children’s play equipment, which were all installed without permission.
Legal threat
Austin said: “I am just trying to make a living and develop a community place for the village. But the council says we shouldn’t have put in the swings and shouldn’t have put a fence up and they have threatened me with a £20,000 fine or two years’ imprisonment.
“We didn’t seek planning permission because I wasn’t aware you needed permission to put up a few swings.”
A Canterbury Council spokesperson said: “We received a number of complaints about breaches of planning control at this location. An investigation is under way and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”