I was granted planning permission for an extension on an old uninhabitable house of ours, on condition we replace all the original brickwork and the roof. This would mean that the extension would not be distinguishable as such, and the house would look ‘new’. In order to achieve this we had to take down all the bricks from the original house and remove the roof. While we were in the process of carrying out the work we took a brick and a slate to the planning officer for approval, but we were then sent a letter by an enforcement officer telling us the brick and slate would not be approved as he had intervened and concluded we had dismantled the house too much and that we must make a further planning application, as our original application had been contravened. Our project manager (a Member of the Chartered Institute of Building) rang the enforcement officer to make it clear that new bricks could not be put around the old part of the house and neither could new slates be put on the roof without removing the original bricks and slates. However, it transpired that the enforcement officer was on holiday for three weeks, so our project manager spent the next three weeks trying to find another enforcement officer to pick up the file. A senior officer did look at the file and sent a letter of apology – our brick and slate samples were approved and we were free to continue where we left off. By this time we had lost a month and the builder couldn’t return for at least another two months. This means we have lost four months on the project and now have materials sitting around on the plot – and all because the original enforcement officer simply did not do his job properly and look at the details. Can I make a claim against the council for damages?