Firm fined "14,000 for planning breach

An engineering firm has been slapped with a £14,000 fine for breaching planning rules while it carried out a contract worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Options Utility Services Ltd was hauled before Maidenhead Magistrates Court on Friday morning for breaching enforcement action taken by the Royal Borough.

The company set up an industrial base in the green belt at Ffiennes Farm, in Bath Road, Littlewick Green, without planning permission while it undertook utilities infrastructure works for BT in the town centre.

The council was alerted in January 2006 and the company did not leave the site until November last year.

The court heard that the company was averaging a profit of about £4,000 each week.

Options, which had pleaded guilty to the breach, was given the maximum fine of £20,000, reduced to £14,000 for an early plea plus £250 legal costs.

Linda Felton, representing the Royal Borough, accused Options of a 'flagrant breach of planning control’.

See this week's Advertiser for the full story.