TENS of thousands of pounds are being spent chasing builders and developers in Dorset who fail to stick to the planning rules.

The Dorset Council 12-strong enforcement team is said to be under so much pressure that it is struggling to cope with the workload – made temporarily worse by currently switching to a new computer system. It also has around 20 per cent of the team on long-term sick leave, or unavailable for front line work for other reasons and has been forced to buy in agency workers to help keep up.

Members of one of the council’s scrutiny committees heard on Monday that the job was often made stressful by having to confront people alleged to be breaching planning laws and Covid had added to the pressures with some officers having to take extra leave to cope with home schooling.

Several councillors said there was a belief among some town and parish councillors that the team was powerless to act in many cases and slow to deal with problems – especially at the weekends or in the evenings.

Cllr Mark Roberts said that in his Chesil Bank area there were frequent complaints about pop-up weekend caravan and camping sites being set up without permission, but seldom could any of the parish councils get the enforcement team to do anything about it. He said that usually by the time someone came out the offending site had packed up.

“It causes immense frustrations for locals because they don’t see anything being done,” he said.

Others told of trees being illegally chopped down – but the council seldom acting quickly enough to stop it happening.

Team leader Mike Garrity told councillors that in many circumstances it was difficult to take action and admitted that the enforcement team did not have an on-duty system for weekends and evenings although would come out and collect evidence during those times if it was warranted and it was thought likely a case could be proved. He said that, like other services, some of its work had to be assessed for priority needs.

The committee heard that it might only take half an hour to chop down a tree with a protection order on it and, the chances were, that officers were likely to arrive after the destruction had been done.

Mr Garrity also admitted that in almost all cases the council was unable to recover costs for actions it had taken to tackle breaches, although there were a few instances where it was possible, but usually only when the case reached the courts.

Planning brief holder Cllr David Walsh rejected calls for local councillors to be kept informed of enforcement actions taking place in their patches. He said that the process was like police work and mostly required confidentiality if successful actions were to be taken.

The committee heard that each of the team’s experienced officers were currently looking after around 70 cases each but it was hoped that a re-organisation, a new computer system and on-going recruitment would improve the service – eventually getting to the point where officers could be proactive rather than having to react to situations as they arose.