Brighton jeweller landed with £1.1k bill for Hove fence offence
A Brighton jeweller has been landed with a four-figure bill after he ignored an order to take down a fence, gate and shed at his home in Hove.
Jeremy Hoye, 51, of Aymer Road, Hove, was fined £300 and ordered to pay £850 towards the cost of the prosecution by Brighton and Hove City Council plus a £30 victim surcharge.
The council said that Hoye – who runs the House of Hoye in Ship Street in Brighton – was “in breach of an enforcement notice”.
He failed “to remove the timber boarding that is attached to the top of the boundary wall that surrounds the property, the timber gate from the western boundary and the timber shed that is located to the south eastern corner of the garden”.
The council said: “A retrospective planning application had been refused in 2013 on the grounds of harm caused to the surrounding conservation area.
“It typically has more open, lower boundaries than the taller, close-boarded fence.
“It remained despite Mr Hoye losing an appeal with the government’s Planning Inspectorate and being served an enforcement notice by the council.”
He was prosecuted at Eastbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday 15 July when he pleaded guilty to the offence.
Councillor Julie Cattell, who chairs the council’s Planning Committee, said: “The message is to check whether you need planning consent if you want to make changes to a property.
“If you face enforcement action, please talk to us about how you can comply.
“Planning rules are there to protect everyone’s neighbourhood so we’re not going to simply drop a case if we’re ignored. We will go to court if we must.”
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Wonder where I will not go shopping for jewellery this xmas.
I’d like to know what really happens in these cases and hear the version of events from the accused. I find with our justice system if you are an individual in proceedings against a prosecuting local authority then the judge or magistrates think it’s their duty to act not as arbiter but as the prosecution’s lawyer. http://tinyurl.com/psp22hm
So he built a fence and ignored planning rules, and gets clobbered with a fine. YET your area is awash with travellers who appear to have carte blanche to destroy your parks at will, no action taken against them. One does wonder if the law only applies to the settled community.