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A East Bergholt man who both persistently ignored a council’s requests to remove a satellite dish from his Grade II listed home and who had previously failed to attend court was over £1200 worse off after being arrested and made to attend a hearing at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court last Friday (July 17).
Mr David Clive Goodchild of Rectory Hill Cottages, Rectory Hill in the village was fined £800 and ordered to pay costs of £460 plus a victim surcharge of £15 for failing to comply with a Listed Building Enforcement Notice.
Babergh District Council took the action due to Mr Goodchild’s non-compliance with the Notice which required him to remove a satellite dish from the front elevation of an important Grade II Listed building. Mr Goodchild chose to ignore the Notice and repeated requests by Council Officers to remove the dish.
“The Council takes breaches of planning control very seriously, and unauthorised works to Listed Buildings will not be tolerated” explained John Winders, Babergh’s Principal Development Control Officer. “We do not resort to Court action lightly, but felt that in this case the satellite dish was detrimental to the historic value and character of the listed building and that Babergh had no alternative but to prosecute”.
“We are pleased with the resulting outcome both because we believed it is the right decision in this case and because it sends a clear message to other potential offenders that we will not hesitate to take robust action against them when negotiations fail”.
Babergh is also investigating whether it is able to pursue those companies which install satellite dishes on listed buildings – as well as the property owners themselves.
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