Build now, sanction later: 663 seek permit for illegalities flagged by public

The Planning Authority’s planning directorate received 3,192 complaints from various sources alleging illegal development throughout 2021, a drop of 121 complaints over the previous year.

In 59% of the cases reported by complainants, illegal development was carried out. But in 663 cases, the owners of the illegalities addressed their infringements by submitted a sanctioning application.

On the other hand, in 47% of the complaints where illegal development was identified, the contraveners themselves complied or removed the illegal development, prior to further action being taken by the Directorate.

During the same period, the directorate was compelled to issue 131 enforcement notices resulting directly from complaints received. “In line with overall objectives, every effort was made to solve cases in an amicable manner without the need to resort to formal enforcement action. However, where abuse persisted and cooperation from contraveners was not forthcoming, stop and enforcement notices were issued,” the PA said.

During 2021, in total the PA issued 164 stop-and-enforcement notices, a decrease of just five notices from the previous year. This was in line with a strategy to resolve infringements by more efficient means, rather than by issuing enforcement notices.

Almost 65% of the notices issued were subject to daily fines, which act as a positive deterrent against contraveners to address the infringements in the shortest possible timeframe.

A total of 417 stop-and-enforcement notices were closed off, of which 202 were the result of permissions granted to sanction the illegal development. A further 149 enforcement notices were closed since the illegal development was removed by the contravener.