Agreement to issue Enforcement Notice for The Hide Out, Forda, Braunton, EX33 1JG.

1.1. The breach of planning control alleged is within the last 10 years unauthorised change of use of land to a storage use consisting of the siting of railway carriage, railway track and associated railway items in addition to other stored items including but not only a red van, scaffolding, windows, timber platform structure on agricultural land.

1.2. An Enforcement Notice should be issued to remedy the alleged breach of planning control. The Council considers it expedient to issue this Notice for the following reasons:

1.3. The site is located within the Countryside, beyond an identified Local Centre, Village and Rural Settlement. The storage use at the site in this location is not considered to meet local economic and social needs, constitute rural building re-use or development which is necessarily restricted to a Countryside location. The principle of development therefore does not accord with policy ST07 of the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan.

1.4. The placement of the railway carriage, railway track and associated railway items in addition to other large items stored on the land – vehicle and building materials, by virtue of the visible siting within the landscape, the man made appearance and haphazard placement are considered to result in harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding rural landscape, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This is contrary to the duty relating to Protected Landscapes (LURA 2023 s245), NPPF para. 189 and Local Plan policies ST09, ST14, DM14, DM04 and DM08A.

There are no other actions the Council can take to remedy this breach of planning control. The owner has not willingly complied with requests to remedy the breaches.