Focus on Planning Enforcement with new charter adopted

30th May 2025

Members of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee have agreed to adopt the 2025 Planning Enforcement Charter that captures all planning enforcement policy and procedures. It explains how the enforcement process works, the Council's roles and responsibilities and the service standard that have been set.

Building work, engineering works or the use of buildings or land for an alternative use, in planning legislation, is known as ‘development’. Some smaller scale development does not require planning permission however, most does. Sometimes, "developers" (which can be a company or individual and includes householders) undertake work without the benefit of planning permission or fail to keep to the terms of the permission they have been given.

Where this happens, the Council has powers to take enforcement action against such unauthorised development, if it considers it is in the public interest to do so.

Committee Chair, Councillor Ken Gowans said: “Planning enforcement is one of the more complex parts of the planning system. The charter clearly explains in detail how the enforcement process works in Highland and includes information about the role that the public play in reporting unauthorised development and assisting us to investigate breaches of planning control.

He added: “The Charter will ensure that our procedures are fair, reasonable, consistently applied, and transparent. It will also mean all interested parties are fully aware of the procedures involved in the process, the powers available to us as a Council and equally importantly the limits of those powers.”

The Council regularly monitors progress of development to ensure planning controls are being followed. Given the size of the Council area, there is also a role for the pubic in alerting the Council to any problems that they become aware of.

The committee also noted progress being made to enhance the Council’s Enforcement Team. There will be 4 full-time Planning Enforcement Officers working under the Principal Planning Enforcement Officer. The team will be supported by 3 access officers, on a part-time basis, whose role is to gather information to assist planning enforcement officers as well as to investigate some potential breaches of planning control.