Agricultural occupancy conditions

Summary

The requester asked for statistics on breaches and enforcement actions regarding 266 planning approvals with agricultural occupancy conditions. The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture explained that the 266 figure could not be accurately mapped to specific addresses but disclosed 11 alleged breach investigations and details on subsequent regularization applications.

Key Facts

• The original count of 266 approvals with agricultural occupancy conditions could not be linked to specific addresses due to potential duplications or field number references.
• DEFA retrieved 11 alleged breach investigations concerning agricultural occupancy conditions across 11 addresses.
• Of the 11 breach investigations, 6 resulted in planning applications to regularize the breach, with 5 refused and 1 approved.
• DEFA received 16 separate applications for a certificate of lawfulness, of which 14 were approved, 1 declined, and 1 withdrawn.
• The authority stated it does not hold information in a format to satisfy the specific requirement of mapping the 266 count to enforcement cases.

Data Disclosed

• 266
• 11
• 6
• 16
• 14
• 2017-09-28
• 2017-10-10
• 2017-06-12
• IM104948I
• IM90426I

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

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 Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture

  Rheynn Chymmyltaght, Bee as Eirinys

10th October 2017

Dear

Request under the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (FoIA) Ref: IM104948I Thank you for your request dated 28th September 2017.
You asked: In a Freedom of Information request to DEFA, dated 12th June 2017, you state that 266 approved planning applications have had ‘Agricultural Occupancy Conditions’ applied to them, or have been subject to such a “restriction”. Of 266 approvals how many have DEFA:

(a) Been notified of, or become aware of being in breech, of the stipulated conditions; and
(b) Of these, how many have resulted in ‘Enforcement’ action, if any?

Response to your request Our aim is to provide information wherever possible and in this instance we confirm that we do hold information to answer your request.

As this request relates to a previous result IM90426I, we would refer the requester to the notes mentioned in that response, as they remain wholly relevant.

The 266 ‘count’ of applications where agricultural occupancy conditions have been applied has not been associated to specific addresses.

The number of conditions counted could include duplications (applications being later amended or the like), may never have resulted in a build, or may reflect approval on a field number, not a postal address.

Accordingly we are unable to accurately relate enforcement cases to individual properties from the 266 count.

Corporate Services Directorate, Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road,
St John’s, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS

Fax no (01624 685851 Email: defa@gov.im
www.gov.im

Quoting Ref: IM104948I Your Ref:

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We do not hold information in a format which is needed to satisfy the specific requirements of the request, but in endeavouring to meet the enquiry we can advise as follows;

Of 266 approvals how many have DEFA:

(a) Been notified of, or become aware of being in breech, of the stipulated conditions;

As the count of 266 was established from the conditions applied - not by address, we are unable to provide an accurate reflection of any planning investigation against the count of occupancy conditions in place, nor whether any were subject to a breach investigation.

However we can confirm that we have retrieved 11 alleged breach investigations of an agricultural occupancy condition, on 11 addresses.

(b) Of these, how many have resulted in ‘Enforcement’ action, if any?

The definition of ‘Enforcement action’ would need to be clarified by the requester. If it was to be counted as any breach investigation, out of the 11 investigations in answer a), 6 resulted in a planning application seeking to regularise a breach, all but one of which was refused.

We have also received 16 applications for a certificate of lawfulness, which may have resulted from discussion with the Planning and Building Control Directorate, resulting in the property owner seeking to regularise a breach of an agricultural occupancy condition. Of these 16 applications, 14 were approved, one was declined and one was withdrawn.

Your right to request a review If you are unhappy with this response to your Freedom of Information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post to the sender of this letter at the address above. An electronic version of the relevant complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://www.gov.im/about-the- government/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information-review-request. If you would like a paper version of the complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact us and we will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.
If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1 Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act; or 2 Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.

In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your rights to review is on the Information Commissioner’s website at: https://www.inforights.im/

If anything is unclear, or if you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Page 3 of 3

Further information about Freedom of Information requests can be found: https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/freedom-of-information

Yours sincerely,