128Power of planning authority to issue enforcement notice(1)

A planning authority may issue an enforcement notice if it considers that there has been a breach of planning control in respect of any land in its area.

(2)

In considering whether to issue an enforcement notice, a planning authority must—

(a)

have regard to the development plan for its area and any other relevant considerations, and

(b)

make its decision in accordance with the development plan unless other relevant considerations indicate otherwise.

(3)

An enforcement notice must specify—

(a)

the matters the authority considers to constitute the breach of planning control, and

(b)

the paragraph of section 112(1) within which the authority considers the breach to fall.

(4)

A notice complies with subsection (3)(a) if it enables each person on whom a copy of it is served to know what those matters are.

(5)

An enforcement notice must specify the steps the planning authority requires to be taken, or the activities it requires to be stopped, to achieve (wholly or partly) either or both of the purposes set out in subsection (6).

(6)

The purposes are—

(a)

remedying the breach by doing one or more of the following—

(i)

making development comply with the terms (including conditions) of any planning permission granted in respect of the land,

(ii)

discontinuing a use of the land, or

(iii)

restoring the land to its condition before the breach took place;

(b)

remedying any injury to amenity caused by the breach.

(7)

An enforcement notice may, for example, require—

(a)

buildings or works to be altered or removed,

(b)

operations to be carried out, or

(c)

the contour of a deposit of waste to be modified by altering any of the gradients of its sides.

(8)

An enforcement notice may require an activity to be stopped wholly or partly.

(9)

Where an enforcement notice is issued in respect of the demolition of a building, the notice may require the erection of a replacement building that is as similar as possible to the demolished building.

(10)

But the replacement building—

(a)

must comply with any requirement imposed by an enactment that applies to the erection of buildings;

(b)

may differ from the demolished building in any respect which, if the demolished building had been altered in that respect, would not have constituted a breach of planning control;

(c)

must comply with any provision of regulations made for the purposes of this subsection (which may include provision modifying paragraphs (a) and (b)).