Enforcement Notice Served on Landowner of Car Park, Following Breach of Planning Regulations

The car park at 1-6 Belle View Way Hartlepool

Caught on Camera — But Was It Even Legal?, Hartlepool Borough Council serves Enforcement Action on the installation of Signage & an ANPR camera which were reportedly erected without planning permission....

20th June 2025

(Edited 20th June at 14:10pm)

Hartlepool Borough Council has reportedly issued an enforcement notice against the owner of a busy town car park, after it emerged that Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras and associated signage were all said to have been installed without the required planning permission — a move that could potentially lead to drivers challenging the enforceability of the penalty notices issued against them...

The enforcement action reportedly set to be taken against the landowners

HBC Exposed has learned that the car park in question, located on a busy retail precinct on Belle View Way in Hartlepool and frequently used by shoppers, has been operating under the radar of planning legislation for some time.

According to documents seen by our reporters, council enforcement officers determined that the erection of an ANPR camera and signs to warn vehicles entering and exiting the site constitutes a breach of planning control, due to the absence of any lawful planning consent for the equipment to be installed on the land...

In an officer’s decision notice, the council claims that efforts to engage with the landowner and/or the managing agents (Parking Group Ltd) has failed, with the proprietor accused of "failing to co-operate with the council." As a result, Hartlepool Borough Council is now poised to commence formal enforcement proceedings seeking either the installed equipment is regularised correctly, or removed.

Some of the signs which have been placed up around the car park reportedly do not comply with current planning permissions for the site

Should retrospective planning permission not be submitted — and granted — the council has the authority to seek a court order forcing the removal of both the ANPR system and the signage.

Crucially, HBC Exposed understands that because the equipment was installed unlawfully, it could potentially pave the way for motorists who've fallen foul of the parking charges on the site to challenge their penalty notices handed out by the parking firm itself. This raises questions about whether motorists may have been unfairly penalised for using a site that is — in planning terms — not authorised to enforce parking restrictions in this way.

The news is likely to provoke a strong reaction from local residents and shoppers who may have already been caught out and fined by a system that should (in planning terms) not have been operational in the first place without council consent, with the development just the latest in a long line of questionable actions by commercial landlords and their agents in Hartlepool who, it seems, continue to act with little regard for planning law or public accountability.

We will be keeping a close watch on this case — particularly on whether the council follows through with legal action, and if any previously issued penalties are eventually overturned as a result of the alleged planning breach.

Stay tuned for updates as the situation develops.