Charging for Planning Advice by Powys County Council

Those who follow Powys Council's web site may have seen a recent Council Board paper on the setting up of Planning Performance Agreements (PPAs) supposedly to ensure that major projects are delivered efficiently through the planning process. The idea is that major developers will come along to the Council and present their project to officers before they formally submit the planning application. In this way they will be able to access officer advice from across the professional and technical divide so that they can present planning applications that are fully worked through and can pass through the planning application process quickly. Developers will be charged for this advice and the whole process will be project managed with strict timeframes for presentation of information, mainly technical information.

This seems a good idea on the surface but depends on a) the ability of Powys to bring together specialists from across the professional disciplines to meet up with developers on a regular basis - not easy when County Council officers are spread so widely and thinnly; b) the ability of a cash-strapped Council to bring together officers with the necessary expertise; c) the developer's willingness to pay for a planning service that has such a poor reputation for delivery of an efficient service; and, d) the potential for interference by councillors in what should be an area of activity largely devoid of member involvement.

It will be interesting to see how many PPAs are entered into and whether developers consider them worthwhile. The vast majority of planning applications received by Powys are for small scale, mainly house extensions. Such a lot of staff time goes to dealing with those applications that bring little or no wealth to Powys residents overall. Powys would be better off if scarce staff resources could be diverted to deliver large scale projects to help the local economy. The planning system is clogged with small scale domestic planning applications and much energy is tied up. Why does Powys need principal and senior grade officers to handle applications for conservatories and farm buildings when they can't seem to deal effectively with large scale projects.

A final word on PPAs. Does this mean that everything will be tied up before the planning application goes live? If so, public engagement and community involvement will be set aside.