DDN - Planning officer missed discharge deadline!

[Bounce]

Hi, 

 

We applied for planning in May 2023, and after no objections and a lot of chasing to the planning officer as he would never respond to my architects emails and calls, and finally got planning in Jan 2024. He didn't even look at the case until after the initial deadline had passed. 

 

We then decided to change the design and resubmitted planning in April 2024 and got approval in September 2024.

 

There was a pre commencement condition that we had to apply for a licence from Natural England and send it to the planning officers to discharge the condition. 

 

I sent the approved licence to the planners at the start of November, paid the fee and it was validated. Their internal target date has passed of 8 weeks. There again has been no communication or response to my chasers. The planning officer has been the same on each occasion. 

 

Today I've now sent a Deemed Discharge Notice. I did put if they could agree to discharge by Monday, if not then 14 days, which I stated the date. I had the standard acknowledgement email but no response. 

 

Are planners able to reject these requests? Will they see me as being unreasonable? This planning officer has been very poor at responding to any communication, and has been the cause for the delays on each application. 

[SBMS]

4 minutes ago, Bounce said:

Hi, 

 

We applied for planning in May 2023, and after no objections and a lot of chasing to the planning officer as he would never respond to my architects emails and calls, and finally got planning in Jan 2024. He didn't even look at the case until after the initial deadline had passed. 

 

We then decided to change the design and resubmitted planning in April 2024 and got approval in September 2024.

 

There was a pre commencement condition that we had to apply for a licence from Natural England and send it to the planning officers to discharge the condition. 

 

I sent the approved licence to the planners at the start of November, paid the fee and it was validated. Their internal target date has passed of 8 weeks. There again has been no communication or response to my chasers. The planning officer has been the same on each occasion. 

 

Today I've now sent a Deemed Discharge Notice. I did put if they could agree to discharge by Monday, if not then 14 days, which I stated the date. I had the standard acknowledgement email but no response. 

 

Are planners able to reject these requests? Will they see me as being unreasonable? This planning officer has been very poor at responding to any communication, and has been the cause for the delays on each application. 

If your deemed discharge set out the condition you are referring to and the date on which deemed discharge is to take effect then the LA has 14 days to determine your application. The order sets out some other things you must include in your deemed discharge notice. (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/595/article/29/made)

 

They can’t reject the request but they can issue a not discharged notice (but would have to justify why). Or they can discharge your condition. Both outcomes nullify your deemed discharge if they respond within 14 days (or the Date you put in your notice). 
 

If they don’t respond within 14 days and then the deemed discharge date you specified passes without correspondence, then under DMPO your condition is deemed to have been discharged. 
 

There are exceptions though as some conditions cannot be deemed discharge (such as flooding conditions, contaminated land a few others). 
 

If your condition is not subject to an exception then the LA cannot reject your deemed discharge. It automatically is in effect under Town and country planning order. 
 

FYI you could have sent your seemed discharge notice 6 weeks after your application for discharge as well. 
 

 

[Bounce]

Thanks I did read about sending it from 6 weeks, but didn't want to come across awkward.. 

[Bounce]

I sent the following... 

 

Hi, 

 

I still haven't heard back from yourselves in relation to this, therefore please see below.

 

Deemed Discharge Of Planning Condition 

 

The discharge refers to the condition below:

 

3. Before development commences an appropriate licence shall obtained from Natural England. Upon confirmation of the licence / site registration, works shall proceed strictly in accordance with the approved mitigation, which should be based on the proposed measures outlined in the Bat Survey Report (By X) and amended as necessary based on any correspondence with Natural England. Such approved mitigation will be implemented in full in accordance with a timetable of works included within the licence and followed thereafter. A confirmation of registration shall be submitted to and agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority once granted. Reason: To comply with the relevant Habitat Regulations and paragraph 175d of the National Planning Policy Framework and to accord with the relevant policies of the adopted X City Local Plan- Part 1 and saved policies of the City of X Local Plan Review.

 

Discharge application ref: X

 

The 8 weeks have now passed and no objections have been received. 

 

I feel it is reasonable and hope you can agree to discharge this by 10th January 2025, as the 8 weeks have now passed. 

 

If that date is not agreeable, this notice will take effect from 23rd January  2025.

[SBMS]

36 minutes ago, Bounce said:

I sent the following... 

 

Hi, 

 

I still haven't heard back from yourselves in relation to this, therefore please see below.

 

Deemed Discharge Of Planning Condition 

 

The discharge refers to the condition below:

 

3. Before development commences an appropriate licence shall obtained from Natural England. Upon confirmation of the licence / site registration, works shall proceed strictly in accordance with the approved mitigation, which should be based on the proposed measures outlined in the Bat Survey Report (By X) and amended as necessary based on any correspondence with Natural England. Such approved mitigation will be implemented in full in accordance with a timetable of works included within the licence and followed thereafter. A confirmation of registration shall be submitted to and agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority once granted. Reason: To comply with the relevant Habitat Regulations and paragraph 175d of the National Planning Policy Framework and to accord with the relevant policies of the adopted X City Local Plan- Part 1 and saved policies of the City of X Local Plan Review.

 

Discharge application ref: X

 

The 8 weeks have now passed and no objections have been received. 

 

I feel it is reasonable and hope you can agree to discharge this by 10th January 2025, as the 8 weeks have now passed. 

 

If that date is not agreeable, this notice will take effect from 23rd January  2025.

For future reference there is no need to put ‘hope you can agree’. It’s a legal notice you’re serving. A planning consultant would write it to the point unambiguously. 
 

Your condition is interesting. Technically the LA would only have part discharged this condition. There is a second part of condition compliance in your condition which refers to implementation, post works registration etc. I think though that now this entire condition would be deemed fully discharged. I’d check that with a planning consultant as it might meant that you don’t actually have to implement the bat mitigation strategy or register the license…

 

my guess if the LA are in any way diligent you’ll have a part discharged determination in your inbox tomorrow 😆

Edited January 9 by SBMS

[Bounce]

12 minutes ago, SBMS said:

For future reference there is no need to put ‘hope you can agree’. It’s a legal notice you’re serving. A planning consultant would write it to the point unambiguously. 
 

Your condition is interesting. Technically the LA would only have part discharged this condition. There is a second part of condition compliance in your condition which refers to implementation, post works registration etc. I think though that now this entire condition would be deemed fully discharged. I’d check that with a planning consultant as it might meant that you don’t actually have to implement the bat mitigation strategy or register the license…

 

my guess if the LA are in any way diligent will be you’ll have a part discharged determination in your inbox tomorrow 😆

Thanks. We plan to do what was advised by the bat surveyor, which was have them on site when removing some roof tiles and installing some bat bricks, which we've already purchased. 

 

The licence has already been approved and registered with Natural England. When they wrote to us, they said we can now start the works, as far as they are concerned. 

 

I don't plan to not do anything we've been advised to do, just want it discharging now that we have the licence, so that we can proceed. If it's a part discharge, that's fine, aslong as we can start, as they are delaying us, and have delayed this project a lot already. 

 

I contacted the planning officer on Monday via email as he never answers his phone or returns a call of leave a voicemail. He didn't reply, so I emailed a team leader in the planning office, she emaikes him asking him to reply to me and CC her in on Tuesday. He still hasn't responded, hence sending the discharge. 

Edited January 9 by Bounce

[Bounce]

The planning dept uploaded my email to the application online this morning. They didn't send any reply, just uploaded it. 

 

So I would assume they haven't agreed to today's date, and now need to wait for the 23rd January. 

 

I thought they may have responded to say they cannot agree to todays date at least.