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Planning enforcement

What planning enforcement involves, how we enforce breaches of planning and how to report a planning breach and unauthorised building work.

We can investigate breaches of planning controls and take action if necessary.

Possible breaches can include:

  • work being carried out without planning permission or other consent
  • an unauthorised change of use
  • failure to comply with conditions attached to a permission or consent
  • departures from approved plans or consent

Report a possible planning breach or unauthorised building work

Information you will need to provide

You'll need to provide:

  • the address of the property and the name of person involved (if available)
  • details of the suspected breach with times and dates (if relevant)
  • your name, telephone number and address
  • an email address (if available)
  • information on how the breach affects you
  • whether you want us to treat the enquiry confidentially

If all the information above is not provided, a planning enforcement case will not be opened. 

We will send an acknowledgement within 10 working days if the information you've provided suggests there has been a breach of planning control.

Investigating breaches

We prioritise investigations based on the:

  • effect of the breach
  • significance of the site

The time to resolve issues or take action will vary on a case-by-case basis.

We will consider each case and decide on the best solution. We aim to resolve problems rather than punish mistakes. Only a small number of cases usually require formal enforcement action. We will try to resolve matters through negotiation if possible.

Enforcement register

We will enter details into our enforcement register of:

  • enforcement notices
  • breaches of condition notices
  • stop notices

The enforcement register forms part of the planning register.

View the enforcement register

You can inspect enforcement notices in full by visiting us at:

Kirkbank House
English Street
Dumfries, DG1 2HS

To make an appointment:

Email: planningenforcementteam@dumgal.gov.uk

Further information

Our planning enforcement charter explains how the enforcement process works and provides further detail on our role and the standards we've set.

Download the planning enforcement charter from the planning application documents.