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Search the Public Notice PortalA Loudwater accountancy firm has been unsuccessful in its bid to retain brightly coloured cladding installed on its offices without planning permission.
The firm appealed to the Planning Inspectorate after Buckinghamshire Council ordered the grey cladding, featuring yellow and purple sections, to be removed from the two-storey building in Queensmead Road.
The council issued an enforcement notice on March 17, 2025, alleging that external cladding had been installed and alterations made to the building’s fenestration without planning permission.
Planning officers argued that the changes had created an “incongruous form of development” which harmed the character of the surrounding area.
The authority said the materials had significantly altered the street scenes of Queensmead Road and Station Road and that planning conditions could not overcome its objections.
Under the notice, the cladding must be removed and the elevations restored to how they appeared before the unauthorised work took place.
All materials and debris resulting from the work must also be cleared from the site, with three months allowed for compliance.
The firm challenged the notice on the basis that planning permission should be granted for the alterations.
However, planning inspector Stephen Hawkins ruled that the firm’s sole ground of appeal was legally barred because the same external alterations had already been considered through an earlier planning application.
The application sought permission to change the former hall or meeting place into a mixed-use development containing storage and distribution space, offices and educational facilities.
It also included roof lights, a single-storey cycle-store extension and a detached bin store.
Buckinghamshire Council refused the application, with its concerns focusing on the external changes and their effect on the character and appearance of the area.
A subsequent appeal against that refusal was dismissed in July 2025.
Following a visit to the Loudwater site on May 12 this year, Mr Hawkins said the external alterations targeted by the enforcement notice had formed part of that earlier application.
Planning law bars that ground of appeal when an enforcement notice is issued after a related planning application was made and within two years of the application ceasing to be under consideration.
Mr Hawkins said: “The planning application referred to above is related to the enforcement notice.
“The external alterations attacked by the notice formed part of that application.”
He concluded: “Ground (a) is barred. As the appeal was only made on that ground, no further action can be taken.”
The enforcement notice therefore remains in place.
