Council to bring in new charges for invalid planning applications

Cannock Chase Council said it has seen a “significant rise” in the number of invalid planning applications being submitted, which leads to costs for the authority as well as more staff time spent chasing up further information, senior councillors have been told.

The proposed new scheme, which was backed by cabinet members at their latest meeting, aims to recoup some of the costs associated with validating planning applications.

Fees will be charged per attempt to validate an application.

It has also been suggested that validation requests are capped to no more than three attempts before an application is returned, a cabinet report said, “as invalid applications cannot be retained indefinitely and it is for the applicant to ensure what is submitted is appropriate”.

Invalid application fees will range from £50 for a householder application to £150 for major development plans, while minor and “small major” proposals will face £75 and £100 charges respectively.

The number of invalid applications coming forward had risen despite information on the documents required for validation being available on the council’s website, cabinet members have been told.

Currently, applications are given a 28-day time period to submit missing information required for validation before an application is returned, but the council incurs a fee for the processing and returning of an application and these costs are not covered by the applicant responsible.

The report said: “The council offers a pre-application service within which the validation requirements are also outlined to the applicant.

"Both the Validation Document and the pre-application advice service are available to ensure applications are complete upon submission and do not cause any unnecessary delay to the overall process.

“Dealing with and resolving such a high percentage of invalid applications uses a significant amount of officer time and resources.

"Currently the validation team spends a significant amount of time supporting customers who haven’t adequately prepared applications, which could mean repeated requests for information involving numerous exchanges requesting and clarifying the nature and detail of missing information.

“Administration charges are being introduced for the process of dealing with invalid applications returned to the applicant and this is aimed at improving the quality of applications submitted and increasing the number of applications valid at first submission.

"This will enable the planning team to focus resources on the processing of applications rather than managing invalid applications.

“It is the responsibility of the applicant, or their agent, to submit the documents required to assess a planning application, the council’s duty is only to assess and determine the planning application.

"When a planning application is submitted, it is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure the details are accurate and correct.

“The council incurs additional costs in staff time to resolve validation queries, costs which are borne by local council taxpayers.

"It is not appropriate for the local taxpayer to subsidise the private interests of an applicant.”