A leading Fylde councillor has welcomed a fine handed out to the owner of a Lytham restaurant who ignored a council demand to remove an unlawful structure in a conservation area. Chistopher Turnbull and his company 64 Developments Ltd, pleaded guilty at Preston Magistrates Court to failing to comply with an enforcement notice requiring him to dismantle the canopy and other fixtures at the Deacon in Clifton Square, Lytham. The court heard that Turnbull had not removed the canopy even after a government inspector had ruled that it should be taken down within six months because of the harm it caused to the character and appearance of the area. Turnbull and the company were fined a total of £50,356 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £7,145.
District Judge Goodwin told Turnbull that she was satisfied that the defendants deliberately ignored warnings from the council and pressed ahead with their development in a flagrant, commercial, deliberate breach. She considered that the financial penalty merited by the offence was £75,000. Taking into account the guilty pleas that had been offered, she reduced the fine.
Welcoming the fine, Councillor Richard Redcliffe, Deputy Leader of Fylde Council and Chairman of Planning Committee, said: “The council always tries to work with local businesses to help ensure our towns remain prosperous and vibrant. However, that has to be balanced with protecting the historic environments of our town centres. We hope that the prosecution and fine shows that there will be serious consequences if a business decides simply to ignore planning rules and the interests of the community in pursuit of profit. We look forward to the prompt completion of the works necessary to ensure full compliance with the Enforcement Notice”.
Notes to editors:
Planning permission had been granted by Fylde Council in 2018 for an open sided covered eating area to be created to the front of the restaurant. However, the owners of the restaurant chose to erect an enclosed extension.
A subsequent planning appeal was dismissed with an independent planning inspector agreeing with the council that the extension was harmful to the character of the conservation area in which it is located and that the economic benefit it brought was not sufficient to outweigh this harm.
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