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Localism Bill

My Lords, I should like to clarify that I am not speaking about what I would call a repeat amendment, where someone is coming back for another planning application; I am speaking purely about cases where someone has built premises in contravention of the planning permission they have been granted. This has happened to me in both London and the country. I supported the application in the country, only to find that an extra metre and a half had been built on a wall, cutting off totally our view of the village green, which was a very pretty part of the place. When I rang the council to ask why nothing had happened about this, they said, ““Oh, we gave him retrospective permission for it””. The same happened in London, where I actually phoned the council during the construction and said that it was not being built according to plan. ““Oh of course it is””, they said. Eighteen months later the council came back and said, ““You’re quite right, it was not. However, we felt that as people had already moved into it, we should give them retrospective permission””. This is quite unfair to people who have a right of legitimate comment on the original planning application but have no idea when the council is considering a whitewash for something that should not be. That is the purpose of the amendment. I beg to move.