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Ferdinand

Entry posted by Ferdinand

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There are different views about Planning Consultants, and whether they should be used.

 

This is a short example of a Planning Consultant offering superb advice, that most of us self-builders would perhaps not think about.

 

The Problem

 

I have just received a Planning Permission, after 3 months of engagement with the Council. It is a commercial Change of Use but the lesson applies to self-builder permssions. We received our permission, but on the last morning the Planning Department applied an unacceptable Planning Condition which threatened the whole project. The Planning Condition clearly violates several of the basic tests.

 

This condition had not been mentioned in the previous months of consultation, and I did not see it until it appeared on the Decision Notice. At this point the Planning Application has been "determined" (ie decided and frozen), so the Condition cannot be modified without a further Planning Application or an Appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

 

The problem is that a Full Appeal gives the Inspector the opportunity to reopen the basic Planning Application, and modify it - which I do not want.

 

The Solution

 

The recommendation from our Planning Consultant was:

 

1 - To apply for a Variation of the unacceptable condition, which might be accepted, then...

2 - To Appeal the Refusal of the application for the Variation if we need.

 

The advantage is that we then if needed we can get a Determination by the Planning Inspectorate on the narrow point, while keeping all the other acceptable aspects of our Planning Permission out of their scope.

 

The Learning Point

 

As self-builders, we think about discharging Planning Conditions at the end of the build process. The same process can be used to vary them before we start building. It takes extra time and a fee, which is smaller than a Full Planning Application fee for a new dwelling, but does not run the risk of reopening the entire Permission to change.

 

More information

 

The appropriate form on the Planning Portal.

Explanation of Planning Condition Variations on the Government Website.

 

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Jeremy Harris

This is a useful point, and one that came close to causing me pain and grief.  I was very lucky, in that our planning officer wrote the Decision Notice (it didn't go to committee in the end) a few days before Christmas, but the senior planning officer who had to sign it off was on holiday and wouldn't be back for two weeks.  This would have meant that their target for dealing with the application would have been missed, so the planning officer emailed me an unofficial copy of the Decision Notice, assuring me that he'd spoken with his boss before he went on leave and that there would be no problem with it just being signed and released.

 

The unofficial copy of the Decision Notice had clearly been edited from one of the many previous Decision Notices for this site, and still contained a condition removing PD rights.  I couldn't see how the reasons stated for this still applied, as they were based on the developed footprint area of the site, something we had significantly reduced by reducing the house footprint by around 20% (and making it 1 1/2 storey) and getting rid of a very large secure motorhome parking area.  I rang the planning officer, explained that I didn't think it was fair to leave the removal of PD rights condition in and he agreed and removed it.

 

Had we not had the good fortune of the Christmas holiday being in the way, plus the senior planning officer being away on holiday, we would never have seen this condition until the Decision Notice had been signed and issued.  By then we would have had to do as you did, and apply retrospectively to have the condition removed.  It's only pure luck, and the thoughtfulness of the planning officer, who felt we would like to know the outcome of our application before Christmas, that gave us warning of this condition.  Most would be completely unaware of such a think, as you were with yours.

 

Perhaps there should be a change to the process, so that the draft Decision Notice is released to the applicant before it is signed off.  It seems clear that they don't write these things from scratch, but just cut and paste them together (at least our local authority seem to).  As a consequence, it seems fairly common to have conditions that are either no really valid, or that are contradictory.  One I didn't spot until after we'd built the house and were putting in the drive was that the conditions from the highways department on the drive gradient was incompatible with the condition from the Environment Agency on the finished drive level.  The planners just blithely cut and pasted the text from these consultees into the Decision Notice without looking at the site plan at all...........................

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