Just Planning won an enforcement notice appeal against Bromley Council after the council required the removal of a security fence at a block of flats in Penge.
The case concerned a twelve-storey block of flats on Avenue Road. The building sits in landscaped grounds with a wide frontage to the street.
The management company had installed a metal mesh fence around the front of the site. The fence was more than 2m high, so it needed planning permission. It had been installed in good faith, after the management company took advice from the police Designing Out Crime Officer.
There was a practical reason for the fence. Before it was installed, people could enter the grounds at different points along the frontage, using the trees and vegetation as cover. They could avoid the main entrance and the CCTV. There had been problems with anti-social behaviour and intruders gaining access to the building.
Bromley Council served an enforcement notice requiring the fence to be removed. The council said the fence harmed the open character of the area and had an adverse impact on the local townscape.
We appealed the notice. The main argument was that planning permission should be granted.
We accepted that many nearby houses had low or open front boundaries. But the blocks was not a small suburban house. It was a large block of flats in landscaped grounds. It had a different relationship to the street.
We also argued that the fence was not a solid wall or close-boarded timber fence. It was a metal mesh fence, so views through the boundary were retained. Climbing plants had also been planted along the fence to soften its appearance and help it merge with the trees and landscaping behind.
The inspector agreed. The inspector found that the appeal site was different from the neighbouring terraced houses, that the fence maintained a sense of openness because it was formed of metal mesh, and that the climbing plants gave it a softer, greener appearance.
The appeal was allowed. The enforcement notice was quashed and planning permission was granted.
This was a good result for the management company and the residents. The fence stayed in place and the site remained secure.
The case is also a useful reminder that an enforcement notice should not simply be accepted because the council says something is harmful. Planning judgement depends on context. A tall fence may be unacceptable outside one property, but acceptable outside another. The size of the site, the character of the building, the design of the fence and the reason it was installed all mattered.
If you have received an enforcement notice from Bromley Council, you must act quickly. The appeal has to be submitted before the notice takes effect.
Just Planning can review the notice, advise on the grounds of appeal and prepare the evidence needed to challenge the council’s case.
