UPDATE: Southgate Police Station – Possible Planning Violation

Good afternoon. This is in response to claims that councillors have not been truthful in the response from the council regarding the application to convert the former Southgate police station into a hostel.

We have been transparent since the beginning. The application has been rejected and we are in communication with the department regarding the violation of the planning decision. Please see all the communication and all emails from myself to the department below.

27/10/2024

Good afternoon all,

Apologies to send this on the weekend. 

I have long been asking the department for planning to really get a grip of this. The developers think Southgate is literally the wild west. 

The planning application was refused, the department gave the reasons. We have asked the department to serve a notice for the illegal modifications made prior to the refusal, and still I haven’t seen or heard of any action. Either the department is really slow on this or the department simply don’t care. There is no excuse I have raised this so many times. 

See the image attached as proof they are actively seeking to rent rooms inside the building. The exact rooms that we attached as a supporting document to the department to ask for a refusal. 

Please can we take action against this ASAP please?

28/10/2024

Dear Aminur,

Please review the information below and the attached document. Could you provide an update for Cllr Ioannou on the current status of the Planning Enforcement? Additionally, please outline the next steps.

Thank you.

Strategic Director of Planning, Growth and Infrastructure

31/10/2024

Good afternoon Cllr Ioannou,

Thank you for your email and apologies for the lack of communication received regarding this site.

There is currently a case open for this site (ENF/24/0832) which is currently pending consideration. I have copied in the case officer, who will be able to provide you with the status of this case.

@Jo Falzone please update Cllr Ioannou on where you are with this case.

Thank you.

Kind Regards,

Technical Support Team Leader Development Management Planning and Growth

31/11/2024

Dear Cllr Ioannou 

Thank you for your email. 

I can confirm that a joint site visit was undertaken last week with my colleagues from the London Fire Brigade, Private Sector Housing together with the owner and agent. 

At the time of our visit the premises were unoccupied.  Advice was given to the owner that occupation of the premises without the benefit of planning permission will be followed by Enforcement action. 

Unannounced monitoring visits including out of hours have been arranged to check potential occupation of the premises.  

I hope the above interim information clarifies matters and to your satisfaction. 

Kind regards

Planning Enforcement Officer  Planning Enforcement Officer
Planning and Growth Dept (Environment and Communities)

31/11/2024

Good afternoon

Thank you for the update.

I just want to understand the make sure that I’m crystal clear on exactly what happened on the inspection. You are saying that you did not find evidence or anybody living inside the premises on that point which you did the inspection?

That’s only one part of the issue. The images that were attached in the original e-mail show clearly that the applicant and the landlord have made illegal modifications inside the building, which are again enforceable and the department should take action on. That’s a second part of the problem. If they have modified to make illegal bedrooms, kitchen areas and toilet facilities, that should also come under enforcement notice, should it not?

If you want to conduct additional visits, especially out of hours, which will be good as they are being advertised as hostels and student accommodation, please do let us know the outcome of each visit if possible on this chain?

Thank you.

31/11/2024

Dear Cllr Ioannou 

Thank you for your email. 

I can confirm that during the joint visit that none of the rooms including communal kitchens and bathrooms were or had been in use. 

I will update you once the further unannounced site visits have been carried out. 

Please note that although a HMO licence has been applied for via the @PRSH team, a planning Application for the proposed use is yet to be submitted. 

I have also included the Building Control team in this correspondence. 

I hope the above information is of assistance to you. 

Planning Enforcement Officer
Planning and Growth Dept (Environment and Communities)

4/11/2024

Good morning .

Something doesn’t quite add up here. Something isn’t right.

I have received in excess of 10 emails this morning telling me that people are going in and out of the building, most of them young students. It’s very clear from the emails and the communications I’m receiving that this is an inhabited building which is in contravention of the buildings intentional and verified use.

The building should not be rented to anybody or served as any form of accommodation. This building is not allowed to have this use. The applicant has already, as you mentioned, made modifications, and installed a communal kitchen and bathroom. This is again in contravention and should never have been allowed. Why isn’t the department getting a grip of the situation and stopping them and setting an example of what happened when people do not abuse planning laws?

It’s very clear to me that your inspection with the applicant is inaccurate and is not the situation at all. In fact, it is entirely the opposite and the applicant is pulling the wool over your eyes.

Can I please ask there for a more detailed account on exactly what you witnessed at the building, because I’m hearing a very contradictory thing from residents.

4/11/2024

Dear Councillor Ioannou,

Thank you for raising these concerns. I understand how frustrating this situation must be, especially with the volume of reports coming from residents.

For context, planning enforcement is discretionary rather than statutory, so immediate action is very rarely possible. Any enforcement action must be well-justified and defensible to avoid potential costs against the council, and the discretionary nature of planning enforcement tips the balance in favour of the applicant. At present, we are handling two public planning enforcement inquiries, each lasting several weeks and requiring extensive evidence. To serve our Councillors and residents effectively and professionally, we need to proceed carefully, ensuring that all actions are fully substantiated—a process xxxx is actively managing.

xxx and / or xxx would be happy to meet with you to review the evidence gathered so far and discuss our inspection findings in detail. This will provide an opportunity to address any discrepancies and outline our approach moving forward.

If this would be helpful, Jo will reach out to schedule a time.

Kind Regards

4/11/2024

Dear Cllr Ioannou

Just to follow up on xxxx email below, when officers visited the property on 23 October 2024 the premises was not occupied and there was no evidence of occupation. The owner is also aware that the building must not be occupied until such a time they have the required permissions in place. Off the back of your email and reports from residents we contacted the managing agent today who advised that the building remains unoccupied. Given the conflicting reports, officers will undertake an unannounced site visit in the next few days to ascertain if anything unlawful is occurring. We will ensure that you are updated of the outcome of that visit and any next steps as appropriate afterwards.

Kind regards

7/11/2024

Dear Cllr Ioannou

Just to follow up on my email below, an enforcement officer made an unannounced visit to the property on Tuesday and found no evidence of occupation (there was one room with a mattress on the floor – but this is used by the security guard to sleep in as security is provided 24/7). This visit followed a through visit of the premises on 23 October where officers inspected all 64 rooms and again found no evidence of occupation.

The owner is fully aware they require both a license and planning permission before they can operate, at present they don’t have either.

I do appreciate that residents and members remain concerned about the use of the site as a HMO/Hostel, but unless and until there is clear evidence of occupation, the Council has no powers to act.

Going forward it would be immensely helpful if residents could share any evidence with the case officer XXXX if they think occupation has taken place. We will of course investigate again.

I hope this email assists in providing confidence that officers are taking resident and member concerns seriously.

Kind regards

13/11/2024

Good evening all.

Please see the links attached.

https://m.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/london/london_n14/17534214

https://www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/london/room-in-a-shared-house-chase-side-n14/2267757

I am now really concerned with the way the planning and licensing team are handling this. Its 99.99% clear these premises are being rented out and the links provided confirm this. Its extraordinary how officers who attended haven’t seen the rooms and the layouts. Surely, they must be renting them out, it cant be that they have done a full renovation and modifications to the building and not renting them out.

I also have residents who have sent me photos and others who have called me on the council phone to confirm people are going in and out of the building.

Either the council officers who attended weren’t shown the full picture or the situation has developed. Either way the situation is clear that the applicant is indeed renting out units within the building illegally.

When was the last spot check done?

Please can we look into this again. Thank you.

13/11/2024

Dear Cllr Ioannou

Thank you for your email.

The officer inspections did not confirm that any of the rooms were occupied.

The fact that they are advertised is not enough for us to take action, they would have to be occupied for the change of use to have occurred and for there to be a breach of planning.

Unfortunately, we work within a national planning enforcement system that does not allow us to act formally in these circumstances.

Now that we have seen the rooms advertised, we will monitor the site closely and make unannounced visits. We will also contact the owner and remind them of the consequences if the building is occupied.

In addition to the above, it would be helpful if residents could also notify us if they evidence occupation.

Yours sincerely

6/12/2024

Good evening, Karen.

Thank you for the e-mail on the contents and the explanation that you gave.

However, something doesn’t add up between the inspections that are being carried out with officers on these premises, and the actual situation that everybody sees in the local community.

When I called the person that was advertising the units for rent, they said it was ready with immediate availability and I required no deposit. That basically means that today, as things stand, there are units in there that are available to rent. That’s the way that I interpreted it.

I’m quite concerned that officers are attending the site and are finding no evidence. And yet it’s very clear that people are sleeping there and there are other students living as part of student accommodation in that premises. Can I please therefore ask for the exact dates and the exact times that officers have visited the site? I want to see how far in the evening these officers are going to the premises. Maybe they’re not going late enough.

On a separate note. The premises is monitored with security and CCTV. How do we not know that the applicant and the security are not notifying those in the building prior to the arrival? Or maybe when officers are standing outside or behind the premises that maybe people are actually being hidden inside the premises, just before officers inspect. Forgive me for these paranoid thoughts. They cannot be that everybody is seeing it. We have so much evidence of people going in and out of the building, yet nobody has a reasonable reason to go inside the building. So, what are they actually doing there?

Why don’t council officers have body camera recordings so that we can document and video the evidence so we don’t just go by word of mouth and we have actual factual evidence.

Something doesn’t add up here and I keep on repeating this. We can’t be going crazy as a community.

10/12/2024

Dear Cllr Ioannou,

Thank you for speaking to me this morning. As discussed, Jo Falzone and I made an unannounced visit to the premises yesterday.

It was clear from the visit that some of the rooms in the building on Chase Road are now occupied.

As we were able to obtain sufficient evidence of occupation we will be looking to serve a planning enforcement notice. The notice is being finalized and we will be serving it on the owners on Friday.

The notice will give the owners 3 months to cease use of the building as a hostel and remove all associated furniture and ancillary facilities. The 3 month compliance period will start on 31^st January as they have the right of appeal up until this date.  If they appeal, the Planning Inspectorate will decide whether they must comply with the notice. To manage expectations, it could take 12-18 months for the Inspector to make a decision.

In addition to taking action under planning enforcement powers, our Private Sector Housing team are arranging a formal inspection of the premises this week under the Council’s s239 powers with a view to taking enforcement action for failure to operate a hostel without a license.  The London Fire Brigade will be in attendance so they can address any fire safety deficiencies in the common areas under the Fire Safety Order. 

I will make sure you are informed of any further updates. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please contact me directly, or Tina Fasi if it relates to the license.  

I hope the above is helpful.

Kind regards

12/12/2024

Good afternoon, Karen.

Firstly, I just want to say a big thank you for really taking the issue seriously and for yourself and Jo that you attended the premises and witnessed the situation first hand for yourself. The account that you gave and the way that you went about entering the premises really does show the officers went above and beyond on this case. You did go out of your depth, and this isn’t something that officers should usually do. Having said that, the situation was quite bad, and I am grateful that you did persevere and were determined to get to the bottom of it.

This is a very good example and excellent case study that the council can really showcase and show that they are against rogue landlords and rogue developers. The behaviour of those who are the landlord of the property is completely unacceptable, and they deserve no place in the local authority and they should certainly not be allowed the pleasure of dealing with any officers from the council. We are too good for them.

I’m glad that you have now involved the enforcement powers and have served a notice and have now included the London Fire Brigade. I think this is a positive step in the right direction.

Onwards and upwards, and I congratulate you and all those that were involved in getting to this solution and where we are today. In my opinion, you have proved it and that is sufficient. Of course there will be more hurdles in the future, but these are just legislative and part of the law enforcement process and out of our reach. You and Jo and all those involved have done the hard work.

I do however need to ask what the solution is for me regarding the communication I give to residents. What can I say? Am I allowed to share the contents over the e-mail that you just sent?

Thank you in advance and again you have really eased the issue for a lot of people in Southgate and certainly all three of us councillors in the ward.

13/12/2024

Thank you Cllr Ioannou, I appreciate you acknowledging our efforts.

The planning enforcement notice was served today setting out the requirements on the owner as stipulated in my email further below.

The Licensing team are currently reviewing their position and determining next steps following the s239 inspection that took place yesterday.

It was established yesterday that many of the tenants have been placed in the building by other London borough homelessness teams. We have contacted all the boroughs and instructed them to cease any further placements in the building, and to cease the placements already in place.

This is just the start of what is likely to be a lengthy process. We do appreciate your support with communicating this to residents and will update you when there is further information to share.

Kind regards