Issue - meetings

Report of Councillor S Pickering, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Place

RESOLVED – That Cabinet approved the implementation of a chargeable pre-application advice service, in accordance with the charging schedule attached at appendix 1 to the report and the draft service standards at appendix 2 to the report

REASONS FOR DECISION – The charge will provide an income stream to support proposals for additional resources within the Planning Service and will reduce reliance on the general fund to subsidise the cost of delivering pre-application advice. This will give customers greater clarity about the depth of advice they will receive and the timeframes that their items will be responded to.

OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND REJECTED - The option of not charging for advice and/or not to introduce a more structured service with clear expectations on and for customers was considered but rejected. The charge represents an opportunity for the Service to become more financially resilient and facilitate the shift in time and resources to the pre-application stage, in conjunction with a much shorter turn around time for formal applications.

Please note that this was not a Key Decision and so can be implemented with immediate effect by officers.

The report to Members asked Cabinet to agree the creation of a chargeable Pre-Application Planning Advice Service.  The report explained that the value of effective pre-application advice was recognised by the National Planning Policy Framework, which stated that early engagement has significant potential to improve the effectiveness of the planning application system for all parties.

Members heard that the Council currently provides pre-application advice in an informal way. By establishing a formal advisory service, the Council could make clear how much officer time it would make available when providing this advice and what information the service users would be expected to provide in order to receive it.

In addition, the Council would be able to charge for this formal Service. At the moment, all of the costs for pre-application advice were met from the Council’s General Fund budget. In this context, Cabinet heard how levying charges for pre-application planning advice was now fairly common and that most of the planning authorities in the East Midlands Combined County Authorities already did so.

Cabinet welcomed the proposed Pre-Application Advisory Service. Members felt that the new Service would help the planning application process to run more smoothly for all those involved. It would also help ensure that the service could be provided in a more cost-effective way for the Council.

RESOLVED – That Cabinet approved the implementation of a chargeable pre-application advice service, in accordance with the charging schedule attached at appendix 1 to the report and the draft service standards at appendix 2 to the report

REASONS FOR DECISION – The charge will provide an income stream to support proposals for additional resources within the Planning Service and will reduce reliance on the general fund to subsidise the cost of delivering pre-application advice. This will give customers greater clarity about the depth of advice they will receive and the timeframes that their items will be responded to.

OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND REJECTED - The option of not charging for advice and/or not to introduce a more structured service with clear expectations on and for customers was considered but rejected. The charge represents an opportunity for the Service to become more financially resilient and facilitate the shift in time and resources to the pre-application stage, in conjunction with a much shorter turn-around time for formal applications.