Button wrote:The correct quote of Condition 5 is "The provision of the access/egress and circulation arrangements as shown on the drawings hereby approved shall be provided within 1 month of the date of this permission and retained thereafter. Reason: In the interests of highway safety." Although it applies to the planning applicant, and not to site customers, it stops short of explicitly requiring the former to regulate the latter.
Hi Button, don’t know if you are aware, Condition 5 was specifically suggested to be added by Kent Highways, who initially objected to the original planning application for the car wash on the site.
I wrote to Kent Highways last year to clarify this condition and they confirmed that it is their expectation that Condition 5 is enforced, if not adhered to. The bottom line of this condition is that
the circulation arrangements, once put in place, must be
retained thereafter.
I know Kent Highways wrote to DDC Planning Enforcement on at least 3 occasions asking them why they were not enforcing this planning condition,
when it requires provision and retention of the approved access and circulation. DDC’s response was that they were going to contact the owner/operator to resolve the issue.
Even Jim McEwen, DDC’s Enforcement officer, admitted that Ramyar car wash operation is in breach of planning unless "the access/egress is laid out in accordance with the condition 5 and the circulation is achieved and retained". DDC Planning themselves recognise that, if Condition 5 is not adhered to, it endangers public and highways. Yet to date they have done nothing to enforce it, putting the highways users and pedestrians at risk daily.