N&T Civils Limited and its director, Nicholas Edwin Leat, have been fined after pleading guilty to breaching a planning enforcement notice. The case was heard at Peterlee Magistrates' Court, where the company and Leat admitted the breach.
The company, based on Coronation Drive, and Leat, 50, of Low Cross Farm, Cleveland, have been ordered to pay a combined total of more than £17,000 in fines and costs. The prosecution was brought by Durham County Council.
Work near protected watercourse
The unauthorised work involved levelling a naturally sloping field on land next to the A181 at Wheatley Hill in County Durham. According to the council, this had the potential to contaminate a nearby watercourse within a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
Durham County Council's planning manager, Stephen Reed, said the land has not been returned to its previous state despite a requirement to do so. The enforcement notice requiring restoration remains unfulfilled.
Penalties and costs
N&T Civils Limited was fined £2,112, and Leat was fined £650. The company and director were also ordered to pay combined costs of £14,613.72.
Mr Reed said: "This was a case in which significant amounts of materials were brought onto a field without planning authorisation having been sought or granted. This had the effect of making what was a naturally sloping field into one that was level.
"This field is close to a watercourse that is within a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the materials brought onto site had the potential to contaminate it.
"The actions represented an inappropriate and excessive development in open countryside and, to this day, the enforcement notice requiring the site be restored to how it originally was has still not been complied with. We hope this case shows that we will take action when laws that are in place to protect our countryside are breached and that the financial penalties and criminal convictions handed out act as a deterrent."
