Planning enforcement | Essex County Council

Our Planning Enforcement Officer investigates complaints relating to:

active minerals and waste sites
unauthorised minerals and waste activity

We can only investigate matters under the control of the County Council, as defined in the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act. For an explanation of a county matter, see our guide: Development involving county matters guidance note (PDF, 2mB).

The Planning Enforcement Officer’s role is to deal with harm caused by breaches of planning control. In the event of an alleged breach, they’ll open an investigation that normally concludes when, for example:

they find there has been no breach
planning permission is granted
harm caused by a breach is dealt with where planning legislation allows

Informal discussions between the operator and the relevant officer will take place in the first instance to see whether the issue can be resolved without recourse to more formal action. However, in the event that it is not possible to resolve the issue informally, enforcement action may be taken.

Any enforcement action will be taken in line with the policies in our Local Enforcement and Site Monitoring Plan (PDF, 2.99mB). This explains how complaints can be made and how we investigate them.

Report a suspected breach

For mineral and waste sites

If you’re concerned that a minerals or waste site is not meeting the conditions of planning permission, please complete the planning enforcement complaint online form.

Or if you have ongoing concerns with a particular site, you can record these on the attached Enforcement diary sheet (DOC, 53.25kB) and return to planning.enforcement@essex.gov.uk

Once we’ve received your complaint, an officer will investigate.