Planning enforcement against biomass installation

Since March 2021 we have been instructed in respect of a biomass installation constructed without planning permission in 2020. Noise and smoke emissions from the installation were detrimental to the amenity of neighbours. In August 2024 the Local Planning Authority issued two planning enforcement notices against the use of the site and the construction of the biomass installation.

Compelling a Local Planning Authority to take planning enforcement action is notoriously difficult as their powers to do so carry a significant discretion to take action only where it is “expedient”. This case involves two distinct but related breaches of planning control, the first being a change of use from light industrial to general industrial, the second being the construction of a biomass installation without planning permission.

In 2019 planning permission was obtained for a change of use of a barn from agricultural to light industrial. A tenant then occupied the building in 2020 and began using it as a factory. They constructed a biomass installation to provide heat and energy to the factory, fuelling it using waste wood from their manufacturing processes. The use of the site, and the biomass installation itself, generated noise, fumes and smoke that negatively impacted the amenity of the area and impacted residents nearby.

Our client had contacted the Local Planning Authority explaining that there was no planning permission and a planning enforcement investigation was opened in 2020. No progress appeared to be being made.

We were instructed in 2021 and wrote to the Local Planning Authority on the basis that the biomass installation had no planning permission and due to the intensification of the activity on the site and disturbance to residents the factory could not be classed as light industrial, therefore falling outside of the 2019 planning permission. Together with our client, we worked with a noise consultant and an odour consultant who both surveyed the impacts of the factory on the local area, finding that there were indeed unacceptable impacts on amenity. Our client also  kept a detailed log of the impacts on her and her property.

We persistently but firmly engaged with the Local Planning Authority as constructively as possible, recognising that many LPAs are underfunded and have limited resources. In the course of doing so, the factory made a retrospective planning application for the biomass installation, which was refused. That refusal was then appealed to the Planning Inspectorate and, following representations made by us on behalf of our client, was dismissed. The factory then sought a Certificate of Lawful Use on the basis that it was operating as light industrial within the 2019 permission. This was also refused following detailed representations made by us. A further retrospective application was made and was also refused, again having made representations. The factory attempted to appeal this refusal, but was barred from doing so by the Planning Inspectorate following our intervention on the basis that they had already had too many bites of the cherry.

Finally, in 2024, two planning enforcement notices were issued by the LPA against the factory. Both have been appealed to the Planning Inspectorate and we are instructed by our client to resist the appeals.