Planning Application Fee Exemptions

The_Unready

Hi,

I wonder if any 'planners' out there could offer an opinion on a discussion I'm currently having with my local Council's Planning Dept?

In short, Permitted Development Rights have been removed from my property as a result of a condition imposed on a previous planning consent (I believe that this may be known as an Article 3 removal). This isn't the issue.

I now wish to make a new planning application and my Council have informed me that there is a £150 fee to process the application because of the previous removal of the rights. However, a bit of investigation has highlighted that seemingly every other council in England grants a fee exemption in these circumstances due to their interpretation of Regulation 5 in Statutory Instrument 1989 No. 193, The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications and Deemed Applications) Regulations 1989 and its subsequent revisions. My local Council alone have said that the exemption is not applicable, mainly due to what is written in a Planning Fee guidance circular, 04/2008, published by the Dept for Communities and Local Govt in 2008. Para 79 of this document only mentions fee exemptions due to Article 4 conditions, and doesn't explicitly mention the Article 3 exemption that practically every other Council in England is applying (although the previous guidance, issued in a 1992 circular, details the specific Article 3 fee exemption).

As Regulation 5 hasn't been amended since it was originally published in 1989, my contention is that the 04/2008 Circular is either incomplete or incorrect. I also contend that the law (Regulation 5) takes precedence over the Circular. The Council have so far refused to budge, although they are making further enquiries with the Regional Govt Planning Dept.

My question, then, is whether any planning professionals on this Board could offer any guidance on whether or not my Council's view of the fee exemption is correct? I must re-state that every other Council in England that I have looked at so far (over 50) lists this fee exemption in their planning fee documentation.

Thanks for your help.

The Unready

The_Unready

Shameless bump in case there are any planners in tonight!

socrates

If you PM planning_officer he should be able to help you - he normally comes on late at night

planning_officer

I agree that Circular 4/2008 seems incomplete and I agree that Regulation 5 of SI 1989 No. 193 should take precedence over the Circular, which at the end of the day, is only guidance.

Regulation 5 specifically states that no fee is payable if, (a) the proposal would normally be permitted development, and (b) either PD rights have been removed by an Article 4 Direction or by a condition atached to a previous planning permission. So, provided that whatever it is you wish to submit an application for would otherwise by permitted development (under the new legislation from 1 Oct 2008) I don't see why your Council are insisting for a fee. My Council also lists this situation as being exempt from a fee, not that that's much consolation for you! Good luck - let me know what happens, as I'd be interested to find out.

blueboy2001

I work for an LPA and we exempt any applications that would otherwise be PD were the rights not removed. I've never heard of anyone trying to charge a fee for these, but times are hard at the moment and a lot of DC Managers are under pressure to maintain income at the moment.

Is there any debate over whether the application is entirely PD? We have got into debates over fees in cases like these when their development is not wholly PD.

Your options are limited though, if they won't register the app without a fee you could submit it and appeal against non-determination after 8 weeks and see what the Inspectorate think.