Landowner on edge of Rugby borough fined almost £9,000 for starting building work at former quarry without planning permission

John Roger Mac, of Hinckley Road, Wolvey, ignored warnings from the council to halt the illegal work at Granitethorpe Quarry.

Mac was then issued with an Enforcement notice in September 2021 after working on a new building at the Sapcote site. The council’s planning enforcement team said the single structure had an “unsympathetic and unduly urbanising effect on the site’s rural character and appearance”. The former quarry, now partially filled with water, is in protected countryside.

He was given two months to remove newly laid the concrete foundations, blockwork and brickwork and return the land to its previous state, which he did not do. Leicester Magistrates’ Court found Mac guilty of non-compliance of an Enforcement Notice. Magistrates deemed his decision to continue work was a “deliberate and intentional act, consistent with Mac’s general pattern of poor historical compliance with planning and environmental matters”.

He was ordered to pay a total of £8,905.50. This included a fine of £7,500, costs of £1,215.50 as well as a victim surcharge of £190.

Blaby District councillor Ben Taylor, who leads on planning delivery and enforcement and corporate transformation, said: “This case highlighted an astonishing lack of respect of not only the local environment, but also for planning regulations that help to keep the integrity of our landscape.

"We hope it reiterates our strong message that we will not stand by and watch people flagrantly breach planning rules and let them get away with it."