Third of planning complaints in Bristol not checked by staff

The enforcement team has recently struggled to fill vacancies A short-staffed council team didn't bother checking a third of complaints about potential breaches on planning rules last year. Developers have to follow strict rules when they get planning permission, and if they break these rules then they should face enforcement action -- but new figures show in one in three cases council staff decided this would "not be expedient". The planning department at Bristol City Council was recently taken out of special measures by the government, after a remarkable turnaround in the speed of determining planning applications and clearing a long backlog that built up under the previous Labour administration. However the department is still struggling to enforce planning rules and investigate complaints.

An update on the latest figures was given to councillors on the economy and skills policy committee. This showed that between April 2025 and March this year, 575 cases were closed. The report claimed that in 159 of these, a breach was identified, and "in the remainder of cases there was no breach" -- however this appears to be an optimistic claim. Green Councillor Guy Poultney said: "That doesn't sound quite right, so I went back and checked it against the update that development control had over the same period.

The headline figure was about right, over 500, however the biggest group in that breakdown was that 168 were 'not expedient to pursue'. "We're not counting the significant number of enforcement cases reported to the council where the planning department has decided not to take action, but we're suggesting that no breach has occurred in these cases. Actually the planning department has decided that it's not expedient to pursue." Figures given to the planning committees showed that 168 cases were not expedient to pursue; 167 had no breach; 66 were closed for miscellaneous reasons; 45 were breaches but resolved through negotiation; 35 were minor breaches; 32 were breaches but a new planning application was submitted; and seven breaches were resolved by enforcement notices or prosecution. This financial year the council has given the department an extra £300,000 for enforcement.

Four months in, it's unclear what effect that has had on the ground, partly because the latest figures given to the committee were four months old, and covered January to March this year. Another challenge however is actually spending that money to hire extra enforcement officers. Liberal Democrat Cllr Andrew Brown, chair of the economy committee, said: "All the information here is before the £300,000 budget increase was put in place. They're still working through the recruitment process within the team to make use of that additional resource.

So the hope would be that those figures will improve across the course of the year." Enforcing the rules around planning permission is an important responsibility of the council. Without this, developers have free rein to carry out noisy construction work very early in the morning waking up neighbours, or to take little care to stop dust blowing into gardens. Four years ago councillors claimed the council was giving a "green light to cowboy builders". A gym in Fishponds, for example, recently opened without planning permission, angering people living nearby who have complained about very loud music early in the morning.

Despite efforts from the council's enforcement team, Kulture Training Club is still open and appealing both an enforcement notice and the refusal of planning permission. A new enforcement lead officer is due to start in September, which should help the team. However the department still has several vacancies which have been challenging to fill. Another attempt will be made this autumn, which could be easier once the new lead is in place.