Hartlepool Firm and Director Hit With £17,000 Court Bill Over Countryside Development
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Criminal Convictions for Hartlepool Company and Director After Wheatley Hill Planning Breach
24th August 2026
A Hartlepool company and its director have been left with criminal convictions and a combined court bill of more than £17,000 after admitting failing to comply with a planning enforcement notice relating to unauthorised works in the County Durham countryside.
N&T Civils Limited, of Coronation Drive, Seaton Carew Hartlepool, and company director Nicholas Edwin Leat were prosecuted after significant quantities of material were brought onto a field beside the A181 at Wheatley Hill without the necessary planning authorisation.
The material had effectively altered the landscape of the site, with what had previously been a naturally sloping field being levelled.
The case was brought after a planning enforcement notice served in February 2025 was not complied with.
Both the company and Mr Leat pleaded guilty when the case was heard before Peterlee magistrates.
N&T Civils Limited was fined £2,112, while 50-year-old Mr Leat, of Low Cross Farm, Pinchinthorpe, Cleveland, received a £650 fine.
They were additionally ordered to pay combined prosecution costs totalling £14,613.72.
That brings the overall financial penalty arising from the proceedings to £17,375.72, as well as leaving both the company and its director with criminal convictions.
Concerns over nearby protected environment
The case was considered particularly concerning because of the location of the works, where, according to the council, the field lies close to a watercourse within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, meaning the surrounding environment benefits from special legal protection because of its wildlife, habitat or geological importance.
Planning officials said the material deposited at the site had the potential to contaminate the nearby watercourse.
Stephen Reed, the council’s planning manager, said substantial quantities of material had been brought onto the field without planning permission being sought or granted.
He said the works changed the character and levels of the land and described what had taken place as an “inappropriate and excessive development in open countryside”.
Enforcement notice still not complied with
Despite the prosecution and convictions, officials said the enforcement notice requiring the land to be returned to its former condition had, at the time of the council’s statement, still not been complied with.
Mr Reed said the council hoped the prosecution demonstrated that action would be taken where planning laws designed to protect the countryside were ignored, adding that officials hoped the financial penalties and criminal convictions would act as a deterrent to others.
