No enforcement action over hedgerow removal
NO ENFORCEMENT action is to be taken against a housing developer that has breached planning permission by removing a hedgerow in Shepshed.
Persimmon Homes, the developer building on land off Hathern Road, breached planning permission by removing hedging earlier this year.
But the borough council says action will not be taken as the removal of the greenery does not “cause significant harm to the surrounding area” and it says the developer’s landscaping scheme will “mitigate against its loss”.
The decision comes following an Echo report earlier in the year that revealed borough officers were not to take enforcement action against Jelson Homes after work started at Melton Road, Barrow-upon-Soar, before relevant planning conditions had been discharged.
Borough and county councillor Coun Christine Radford told the Echo she is “not happy at all” about the council’s latest decision and thinks not taking action is “the easy route out”.
Coun Radford said she contacted the council when she noticed the hedging, which she estimated to be around 200m long, had been removed at the end of April/start of May.
She told the Echo she believed there were bird nests, ground nesting birds and other wildlife in the hedging and she says the hedge removal has made the bank of the small brook and path along Hathern Road unstable.
Coun Radford said: “It’s typical of the borough council, taking the easy route out and letting developers get away with it again and it’s us councillors that get the backlash as people say we’re doing nothing about it. We are but we get no support from officers.
“I’m not happy about it at all, to me developers just put two fingers up at planning conditions and do what they like.
“If it were you or I, they’d pounce on us, but because it’s a developer they get away with it.”
A Charnwood Borough Council spokesperson said told the Echo removing the hedgerow is not a criminal offence but it is a breach of planning permission.
They said: “The decision to take enforcement action is based on whether it is in the public interest and will vary from case to case.
“If there has been a breach of a planning permission, which will cause no significant harm to the surrounding area, then enforcement action is not appropriate.
“Because we do not consider the loss of the hedgerow to cause significant harm to the surrounding area, and the landscaping scheme will mitigate against its loss, it is acceptable for work to continue on the site as we negotiate the landscaping scheme. Therefore enforcement action is not required.”
The spokesperson said the issue of nesting birds is a matter for the police or Natural England. They added that there was no evidence of nesting birds according to a survey conducted by the developer’s ecologist.
A spokesperson from Persimmon Homes North Midlands said: “We have been working closely with the local authority’s enforcement and planning officer teams to resolve this matter, with a very constructive ongoing dialogue on all planning matters associated with the development site on Hathern Road, Shepshed.”
A spokesman for Leicestershire County Council said following an inspection of the area, there are no immediate concerns regarding the safety of the footpath and brook on Hathern Road but the council will continue to monitor the issue.