Just Planning has persuaded Barking & Dagenham Council to withdraw an enforcement notice requiring the removal of an outdoor seating area at an Italian restaurant in Whitebarn Lane, Dagenham.
Our client had recently taken over the lease of a successful local restaurant. The restaurant itself is relatively small inside, and the outdoor seating area was a crucial part of the business. It provided additional covers, helped create an attractive frontage and had been in place for years, since the Covid period, when many restaurants adapted by making greater use of outside space.
The council served an enforcement notice requiring the removal of the front development. This was potentially devastating for our client. If the outside seating area had to be removed, the restaurant would have lost a substantial part of its usable customer space. The business would no longer have been viable.
We submitted an appeal against the enforcement notice. The appeal argued, among other things, that the development was immune from enforcement action because it had been substantially complete for more than four years before the notice was issued.
The evidence was strong. It included dated photographs from 2021, Google Earth imagery, and the council’s own earlier officer report, which had recorded that the covered outdoor seating area was erected between May 2020 and February 2021.
After submitting the appeal, we contacted the council’s enforcement officer directly. We explained that the evidence showed the development had been in place for long enough to be immune from enforcement action, and asked the council to consider withdrawing the notice rather than putting the appellant through a long and unnecessary appeal process.
The council reviewed the evidence and agreed to withdraw the enforcement notice.
This was a very good result for the client. The appeal did not need to proceed to a hearing or written representations stage. The restaurant avoided the uncertainty, cost and delay of a contested enforcement appeal, and the outside seating area was saved.
The case is also a useful reminder that enforcement notices should not simply be accepted at face value. Councils sometimes serve notices without fully appreciating the planning history, the age of the development, or the strength of the available evidence. In the right case, a carefully prepared appeal and a direct, well-evidenced approach to the council can persuade the authority to withdraw the notice altogether.
If you have received a planning enforcement notice, you must act quickly. The appeal must be submitted before the notice takes effect. Once the deadline has passed, your options become much more limited.
Just Planning regularly acts for homeowners, landlords, businesses and developers facing planning enforcement action. We are particularly active in Barking and Dagenham.
We can review the notice, check the deadline, advise on the grounds of appeal and consider whether there is a realistic prospect of persuading the council to withdraw the notice.
If you have received an enforcement notice from the council, send us a copy and we will explain your options.
