A man who illegally placed shipping containers on greenbelt land has ended up in court.

George Howarth, of Park Hall Road, Charnock Richard, was taken to task by Chorley Council in a case of unlawful development of greenbelt land.

The council was first alerted to the site in Charnock Richard in August 2018 when they discovered several shipping containers on the land, which is owned by Howarth.

In September, the council issued an enforcement notice for unauthorised development consisting of an extended hardstanding area onto greenbelt land and the siting of container units and a site cabin/office.

Howarth was required to remove all unauthorised hardstanding, storage containers and the site cabin from the land and to restore the land to its previous condition.

As late as July 2019, despite multiple attempts by the council to work with the defendant to rectify the situation and the granting of more time, it was evident that no attempt had been made to comply with the enforcement notice.

Howarth pleaded guilty at Lancaster Magistrates’ Court on 31 January 2022. By early May 2022, 13 containers had been removed with eight remaining.

The cabin office had been removed but the extended area of hardstanding remained.

At a further hearing at Burnley Magistrates’ Court on 26 May 2022 the court found that Mr Howarth’s financial gain from renting out storage containers for 32 months was no less than £9,600.

Mr Howarth was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay a contribution to the council’s costs of £2,270 and a victim surcharge of £170.

Councillor Alistair Morwood, Executive Member for Planning and Development said, “We are very pleased with this outcome. As a council, we are determined to protect the Green Belt and although prosecution is very often a last resort, we are willing to do so in order to ensure that land in our borough is not inappropriately used.”