Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
DDCs Planning Enforcement Officer has had some good successes with issuing 215 notices. We can all tghink there's a better way of doing things, but at least they have started and are continuing.
Sometimes things you seen in the papers or online are not quite as they should be, so I'll ask the PEO if it is all true.
Don't be so ready to jump down DDCs throat.
Roger
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
post 11 was a load of gobbledegook from a government department designed to bore people to death tom.
more importantly post 12 just gives out steadily increasing fines that pale against the money that would need to be spent refurbishing a building like the one in athol terrace.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,803
Simon Crowley wrote:
I am not saying the improvements do not need doing. I fundamentally disagree with how this process has been dealt with.
Simon, out of interest what would you have done about the awful state of that building or even the others that you mention. When endless letters possibly even face to face meetings for all I know are ignored only the law is left.
Thinking about the information from Tom I wonder what "as soon as practicable" actually means, I would say start within 3 months and finish within about 6 months but what time frame would someone else say.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Most formal notices result in the property owner making the necessary improvements. This happens behind the scenes. Cases such as this one need pursuing to court 'pour encourager les autres.'
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
experience shows that over 90% respond to a letter from their local council.
Guest 782- Registered: 4 Oct 2012
- Posts: 357
Good question Jan.
Well, I wouldn't have used a Council Officer in the first place because they always either frighten a person in to doing what they want, or put your back up so much that you just tell them to "do one" !
Cosy chats, negotiation and instead of taking them to court, use the money for legal fees to offer an incentive to get the work done.
I have more to this than is appropriate to discuss here, however although I do not respect the process (that we know about!) employed, the ultimate sanction is to take the legislation to its natural end, it has to go to Court.
I may be wrong, but experience suggest that anything like this to do with government process is costly, time consuming and pisses most people off (on both sides). This,especially when there are issues with the Council properties, or big business properties.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
if the owners did not want to go to court they had the opportunity to do something about the slum, no doubt if the house next door to where they live looked like it they would have kicked up a stink.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
I understand that although DDC won the case, the fine was, as said, quite paltry. They can be fined £100 per day if the work isn't done, so in 3 months (or more), it will add up to a tidy sum.
Roger
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
some good news then roger, the flats in dolphin passage are heading in the same direction, coupled with the side of snoops it is a most unpleasant walk through.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Quite disgraceful I agree Howard.
That bottom photo, the flint building, looks like it could - if money was spent on it, look quite good. Maybe nothing will be done to any of them as they are so close to the DTIZ, but they should be smartened up.
Roger
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
if I remember rightly,there are people living in the flats in that flint building.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
correct brian and an eclectic lot they are too, always inviting the police around.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Inviting the Police round - you are so droll Howard.
Roger
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
yeah howard,probably going there for a mug of tea and a spliff.oops I mean a muffin.
Guest 782- Registered: 4 Oct 2012
- Posts: 357
Generally, I rest my case on the previous posts.
But, look at the flint building of Howard's photo next time you have a walk down there. The parapet looks like it is just about to fall forward in to the street! Windows are broken and some of their frames are not in line with their reveals. This building is a a disaster waiting to happen, yet there is no section 215 that we know of. But, never mind, it is in a Street that few people notice. So that's alright then!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
very good point simon, every time i walk past i think of the money raked in by the owner, incidentally buddleia grows out of the side of the building.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,860
I have taken on(won) got landlords to spice up/create even basic standards
but you have to keep at it
long process to
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,483
There's a house on London Road near the Old Endeavour that people wanted Section 215'd.
It's been an overgrown eyesore for years (see Google Streetview in 2009), but walking past today I see it has been cleared inside and out, although it is currently piled up in the front garden.
Perhaps the owner passed away, but the place should have been cleared years ago.
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,696
You could well be right - the owner was a very reclusive & private person who kept to themselves and brooked no interference with their property...
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
