Diggers, lorries, portable buildings and skips are being removed from the green belt land near Home Farm in Fen Lane, North Ockendon – the proposed site for the East Havering Data Centre.
This follows visits to the site by Havering Council’s planning enforcement team on February 25 and March 6.
Havering Council previously told the Recorder that works – underway near Home Farm in spite of a lack of planning approval for the data centre – were understood to relate only to “preliminary site surveys”.
Council leader Ray Morgon said that “investigations are ongoing” to determine the extent of the survey activity, and whether the developer needed separate planning permission for this.
However, the “dismantling” of the site is not due to the local planning authority (LPA) issuing any enforcement notices, a spokesperson for Havering Council has confirmed.
‘Survey’ activity on the proposed site for the East Havering Data Centre, North Ockendon (Image: Charlotte Anderson)
They said: “The planning enforcement team’s visit on February 25 was as a result of information shared with us by residents that unauthorised activity was allegedly happening on site.
“The LPA was not aware of these works before they began.
“The site is being dismantled as the exploratory works are coming to a close, not because the local planning authority have issued any enforcement notices.”
READ MORE: East Havering Data Centre work: Havering Council ‘seeks legal advice’
According to an email from a council officer, seen by the Recorder, the enforcement team found one excavator and one medium tracked vehicle on the site during its visit on February 25.
The email went on to say that “all the remaining vehicles and cabins/containers/skips will be removed by Friday, March 28”.
Havering Council did not confirm this date.
