Cornwall Council to Charge for Pre-application Planning Advice

After consultation with planning agents, councillors and local councils, Cornwall Council will be introducing charges for pre-application planning advice from 31 January 2012.

The fixed charge fees range from £350 + VAT for a major scheme such as a residential development of 10 or more homes; to £100 +VAT for a single dwelling or listed building consent.

Individual householders who may need planning permission for domestic alterations and extensions will not be charged a fee and will be able to get comprehensive advice from theHouseholder Design Guide and Householder Submissions Guide, or can contact Building Control for Building Regulation advice.

Open and constructive pre-application discussions are an opportunity for Cornwall Council and applicants to work together to achieve developments that deliver benefits to the individual, community, environment and the economy.

The Council consulted on the proposed introduction of a new structure of pre-application fees in October and November last year. The responses have been taken on board and the Council has made documentation clearer and the charging schedule fairer by reducing the charges for smaller forms of development and offering a desktop assessment service for a reduced fee.

The new system will also allow for greater involvement of local councils earlier on in the process and make the process more transparent with pre-application details being available through the Council's online planning register.

Cornwall Council's Head of Planning Phil Mason said: "We welcome and encourage discussions before the submission of a planning application. By bringing in this new structure we will be able to provide a more consistent service to anyone willing to proactively discuss proposals before the formal submission of an application to help speed up the development process. Until now, the level of information submitted as part of the pre-application request has varied together with the level and usefulness of the response.

For budgetary reasons and in order to provide a more consistent service, we have to move to a scheme based on cost recovery with the user paying for such a discretionary service."

Cornwall Council cabinet member for planning and housing Mark Kaczmarek said: "Each year Cornwall Council receives about 4,000 pre-application planning enquiries and officers spend over 27,000 hours processing them. The Council needs to recover some of the costs involved in providing this service. We, like many other council's, have decided to implement a new charging structure which I believe represents good value for money and will help to standardise and improve the service we offer."