Amendments to Section 25 of the 2006 Act add Fixed
Penalty Notices to the enforcement armoury. Where an
enforcement notice or a breach of conditions notice have been
served, and the planning authority believe a person to be in breach
of these notices, they may serve a fixed penalty notice. This will
be structured like a parking ticket. It gives somebody the option
of paying the authority an amount of money which would then
discharge any liability to conviction for the officers of non
compliance under Section 136 or Section 145 respectively. There is
a discount for early payment. The FP Notice has to be served within
6 months following the end of the period for compliance, and cannot
be served if the person has been already charged with an offence.
Once payment has been made, it becomes incompetent to "commence
proceedings" in respect of that breach. The fines are to be set by
Ministers and have been set at £100 for a first offence, rising by
subsequent £50 increments for each succeeding penalty.
Stop Notices, usually only used when there is
ongoing serious environmental damage or increasing prejudice to the
proper planning position, are to be enhanced with "Temporary Stop
Notices" (Section 26 and now Section 144A-D). If there is activity
on land and the authority thinks it is expedient that it should
cease immediately they may serve a Notice requiring that. The
Notice takes effect as soon as it is displayed on the land, but
ceases to have effect 28 days later. These cannot be used to stop
use of a building as a dwelling house or certain activities which
are yet to be prescribed by Ministers and there are special
provisions for caravans. A TSN cannot be used if the activity has
been engaged in for 4 years prior to service. Non compliance with a
TSN is an offence, with a fine of up to £20,000 after a summary
prosecution, unlimited for a prosecution on indictment. TSN can
give rise to a claim for compensation, if the activity was in fact
permitted, or immune from enforcement action (i.e. has a
certificate of lawful use or development) or the notice is
withdrawn.
New Notice requirements for developers. New
Sections 27A, 27B, 27C for the Town and Country Planning (Scotland)
Act impose new duties on developers. The Local Planning Authority
has to be told when development is to be started and a site notice
has to be displayed. There were concerns about whether this was
simply additional paperwork. However, informative site notices
about development are commonplace on the continent; and who knows,
the additional publicity may contribute to better public awareness
of the development industry and the planning system. Notices will
also assist LPAs to act quickly on any enforcement or compliance
issue. See draft Town and Country Planning (Notification and
Display) (Scotland) Regulations 2007.