What is a breach of planning control?

Please contact Surrey County Council to report a highway problem.

You should call the police if there is an immediate road safety issue on 999.

For non emergency issues which may require police presence call 101 or if you’re deaf or hard of hearing, use the textphone service on 18001 101.

Please Note: We can investigate vehicles parked on the road or on grass verges if they are associated with the unauthorised use or development of a property.

Please contact Surrey County Council to report a problem on a public right of way.

You should call the police if there is an immediate safety issue on 999.

For non emergency issues which may require police presence call 101 or if you’re deaf or hard of hearing, use the textphone service on 18001 101.

Please contact the Health and Safety Executive to report Health and safety concerns on building sites.

Persistent working outside of permitted working hours (8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on a Saturday) should be reported to the Environmental Health customer support team by emailing environmentalhealth@waverley.gov.uk, or calling 01483 523393.

If the development in question has planning permission and there is a condition included in the Decision Notice which restricts the working hours, please keep a log over a period of at least two weeks of the following information:  

In order to take formal enforcement action we need strong evidence to prove that a developer is persistently working outside of the approved working hours, how long before or after the approved times they are working AND we need to understand the nature of work taking place at these times. By completing the above table over a period of time, you will be providing us with a stronger evidence base to be able to determine whether formal enforcement action is likely to be successful. 

Once you have sufficient evidence, please submit your log to us via our online complaint form.

We do not have the power to address poor quality of work or concerns you may have over the security of a site.

Please report dangerous structures to the Building Control team.

We can only take action once a breach has occurred. We are unable to prevent development that has not happened yet and cannot investigate based on speculation alone.

This is because we always have to have good reason for using our powers of enforcement since our justification for investigating somebody’s private property has to be balanced with the privacy of the public.

Find out more about these issues and report problems in our Environmental concerns section:

• Noise
• Smells and odour
• Pollution from constructions sites
• Dealing with bonfires

You can also contact the Environmental Health Customer Support team by emailing environmentalhealth@waverley.gov.uk, or calling 01483 523393.

• Street cleaning and flytipping (includes links to report abandoned vehicles and graffiti). You can also contact the Environmental Services Team by emailing waste@waverley.gov.uk, or calling 01483 523524

These are civil matters which are not enforced by Waverley Borough Council or any other local government department and so you will need to seek advice from a solicitor or Citizen's Advice Waverley. These matters include:

Restrictive covenant

A restrictive covenant is a private agreement between land owners where one party will restrict the use of its land in some way for the benefit of another's land. The enforcement of a restrictive covenant is a civil matter. They can only be enforced by the original contracting parties and against any successors in title. They are not a material planning consideration so cannot be considered when determining a planning application and are not enforceable by any public body.

Boundaries and boundary wall issues

Local Planning Authorities are only essentially concerned with the use and/or development of land and therefore the ownership of that land or the location of the boundaries is a minor matter in the determination of an application.  We are allowed to take the plan submitted with an application as correct without the need to check with Land Registry because every applicant has to submit a Certificate of Ownership which is essentially a declaration of the ownership of the land outlined in red on the location plan. It is an offence to knowingly or recklessly sign the wrong certificate and if the owners of land adjacent to that boundary believe the ownership to have been misrepresented, it is for them to prove that that is the case.  If sufficient information is provided to suggest that the declaration is inaccurate then we can invalidate the application provided it has not already been determined.  The neighbours would then need to enter into a boundary negotiation and come to an agreement before the application is resubmitted with the correct certificate (declaration).  If the application has already been determined before the boundary issue has been identified, then it is a private legal matter and is not something we as a planning authority can help with. 

It is important to note that anyone can submit an application for planning permission on any piece of land. They do not need to be the owners of that land, merely to sign the correct certificate of ownership (declaration) at the time the application is submitted.  It is worth noting however, that the granting of planning permission does not give the applicant of that permission the right to build on other peoples land without their consent, but again, this is a private legal matter and not something we are able to enforce against.

Issues arising through building works on or adjacent to a boundary are dealt with via the Party Wall Act. This Act provides a framework for resolving disputes in relation to party walls, party structures, boundary walls and excavations near neighbouring buildings. You will need to follow the guidance set out in the Part Wall Act in order to achieve a conclusion that is to your satisfaction.

Unless the trees are in a conservation area, protected by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) or the vegetation is protected by a condition of planning permission, the clearance of vegetation is not considered to be development. If land is cleared, possibly in anticipation of a development receiving planning permission, we will only be able to take action if an application is submitted and development actually begins before permission is determined.

If you have concerns over trees or hedges that have been cleared, please visit our Tree advice pages. 

The removal of trees from the countryside or woodlands may require a felling licence from the Forestry Commission. To find out if a licence for tree felling is required, please see Tree felling overview on gov.uk for further information and guidance. 

Suspected tree felling without licence can be reported to the Forestry Commission, who can also be contacted by calling 0300 067 4000 or by emailing nationalenquiries@forestrycommission.gov.uk.

If you believe a wildlife crime has occurred, please see guidance on Surrey Police website, where you can report a crime online, or report it to Surrey’s Wildlife Crime Officer by calling 101.