You arrived at this page by selecting:Planning Permission Bureaucracy (YEP 17/06/08)
In my experience I find that councils have some of the worst bureaucracy known to man or woman. I saw an advertisement on the television the other day which has caused a bit of controversy due to what I can only call a 'jobsworth' from the council.
Let me explain. You may have seen the advert I am talking about. The 'fit the best' one about double glazed windows featuring an old advert of Ted Moult outside the Tan Hill Inn (Britain's highest pub). Well their new advert talks about solar panels as well as double glazing and you see a couple of windswept chaps on the Tann Hill roof fitting solar panels in the blustery British weather. There looked to be a threat of a storm in the air just like last time they filmed there there so I'm not exactly sure when they'll get some sun to try out these panels. They might be in for a long wait.
Anyway the point is they never had planning permission for the solar panels and some jobsworth at the council saw the advert and looked into it to check. The saga was reported in the newspaper and the Tann Hill Inn had to put in retrospective planning permission. The outcome was the council didn't really mind the solar panels anyway so they gave their permission and that was that.
Now the thing about retrospective planning permission is that it's more or less the same process as making a normal planning application. It is complicated, lengthy, drawn out and costs both the public and the council a considerable amount of time and money to process and the council's money is in fact the public's money anyway. So in my view you're paying twice just so the council can have a discussion and do a paper chase and then tell you they thought it was ok anyway.
They will say the process is vital to make sure we all live in a nice environment and that we are not surrounding by eyesores. That sounds fair enough as none of us want to be living next to a monstrosity. However planning permission was introduced in 1947 and one could argue that it was after 1947 when all the eyesores started to go up. So what have we been protected from? Before 1947 you could build what you jolly well liked and to be honest the architects didn't do a bad job in my opinion. Lots of people prefer the style of old buildings rather than some of the carbuncles we have today and pay a fortune for the privilege in living one.
Councils are always complaining of not having enough money. How about they save a bit with more efficiency in the planning permission department?
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