Council U-turn on workshop decision

Council officials who ordered a man to dismantle a workshop he built near Blairadam without permission have dropped their demands after he asked the Scottish Government to review their actions.

Enforcement officers told Fife man David Dempster to take down his forestry workshop at Red Moss Wood or risk being fined or prosecuted after planning colleagues refused to grant him retrospective consent for it four times.

In a formal notice served on Mr Dempster in February, officers asserted the building“was substantially completed within the last four years”and they were therefore within their rights to order him to dismantle it.

They said:“The erection of the building constitutes development that, in the absence of planning permission, is unauthorised and a breach of planning control.

“The planning harm associated with the alleged breach of planning control is its adverse impact on the character and amenity of the area, and its lack of an appropriate drainage system has the potential to have an impact on Loch Leven as it lies within the catchment of the loch.

“Accordingly the council considers that enforcement action requiring the removal of the building and its foundations is both justified and necessary and is in the public interest.”

However, a planning consultant acting for Mr Dempster filed papers with the government a day before the notice was due to come into effect asking its staff to consider overruling the council and cancelling its orders.

John MacCallum of JM Planning told the government:“The appellant wishes to advise that the workshop building … has been‘substantially completed’for more than four years prior to the serving of the enforcement notice.

“Consequently, the notice is deemed to be invalid as it is time-barred.”

Now council officers have backtracked and decided to withdraw the enforcement notice they served on Mr Dempster after conceding the point made by Mr MacCallum.

Documents published online show the council’s enforcement team leader Jamie Scott wrote to Mr Dempster on April 7 saying:“I refer to the enforcement notice dated February 19 … relating to the erection of a building, namely a forestry workshop and store, at Red Moss Wood, Blairadam, Kelty.

“[PKC] as planning authority hereby withdraws the aforementioned enforcement notice.

“The reason for the withdrawal of this enforcement notice is that it appears that the building is immune from enforcement action due to the passage of time.”

The government has now written to Mr MacCallum to ask if Mr Dempster still wants his appeal to be determined by one of its reporters.