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Ten-year breach of planning regulations at property in Cranbrook earns fines totalling £2,300

A man who has ignored planning regulations for over 10 years has appeared in court again.

Christopher Wright, 69, of Waypost Meadow, Golford Road, Cranbrook, has already been fined twice before for breaching planning enforcement orders on the same property - but that does not seem to have deterred him.

Christopher Wright leaving Sevenoaks Magistrates Court (46860724)
Christopher Wright leaving Sevenoaks Magistrates Court (46860724)

He return to Sevenoaks Magistrates Court to answer three charges involving a breach of an enforcement notice issued by Tunbridge Wells council. One was that he had failed to demolish a building erected without planning permission and to excavate and remove the foundations as instructed.

A second charge was that he had failed to remove three timber structures erected without planning permission and to remove all the materials from the site.

The third charge was that he had failed to cease using that land as instructed to store soil, spoils, caravans and a shipping container.

In a deal brokered with Robin Harris, the solicitor representing Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, outside the courthouse that morning, Mr Wright pleaded guilty to the first two charges in return for the council offering no evidence on the third.

Mr Harris then suggested to the magistrates that they might want to postpone sentencing for three months as Wright was planning to submit planning applications that if successful would "be exceptionally powerful mitigation if he could show he had sought and achieved compliance."

The Tunbridge Wells council solicitor Robin Harris (right) leaving Sevenoaks Magistrates Court ahead of Christopher Wright
The Tunbridge Wells council solicitor Robin Harris (right) leaving Sevenoaks Magistrates Court ahead of Christopher Wright

Wright, who was representing himself, said he had "applications going in next week."

But the chairman of the bench Martin Alderman was having none of it.

He learnt that Wright had first been fined £1,000 for each offence in 2012.

In 2015, he was fined £5,000 for each offence because by then it had also been ascertained that he was making money from the illegal use of the site.

In addition he was ordered to pay £132,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act - being the amount he was estimated to have made from the illegal use.

The £132,000 confiscation order had been paid in full - Wright said he had used a loan from his son, but other fines, from these and other offences, were still outstanding and totalled almost £30,000.

Wright was supposed to be paying them off at £50 a month, but had not made a payment since August 2016.

Asked how he intended to pay up, Wright told the magistrates that he was planning to sell land he owned at Chapel Farm.

Mr Alderman noted that the enforcement notices had been first issued, one in March, 2010, and the other in February 2011.

The bench imposed a fine of £1,000 for each offence and ordered Wright to pay £200 costs to the council and a £100 victim surcharge, totalling £2,300.

Wright was warned he had 28 days to pay before the bailiffs would be sent in.

Later Wright told Kent Online: "This is nothing unusual. It's just ongoing. I've been in and out of court for years.

"It's the story of my life. The council are always giving me grief."

He declared himself "happy with the result" because he had expected a worse outcome.

A spokesperson for Tunbridge Wells Borough Council said: "The enforcement notices were issued because the use of the land had been changed without planning permission.

"The council is now considering its position."

Read more: All the latest news from Weald

Read more: All the latest news from Tunbridge Wells

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