Planning officers slam decision to shelve publicity requirement changes

The Planning Officers Society has blasted the government’s decision not to forge ahead with changes to publicity requirements that would have given local planning authorities discretion as to whether or not press notices were carried out.

The Department for Communities and Local Government revealed before Christmas that it would issue new guidelines setting out how local authorities will be required to publish information about planning applications on their website, but that the statutory requirement for certain types of planning applications to be advertised in local newspapers would not change.

Calling for planning minister John Healey to review this “unfortunate decision”, Phil Kirby, the Society’s immediate past president, said: “Web publication of notices is a good thing and we are all going to be made to do it. But it’s not that good, as we are still going to have to duplicate the requirement by also using a newspaper.”

The Society said it was concerned that the DCLG had ignored the “strong evidence” of the administrative and financial burden this requirement puts on local planning authorities. “Given the considerable publicity given to planning applications via direct and indirect means, the Society does not believe any element of the community would be disadvantaged if notices were not displayed in local newspapers,” it added.

Current president David Hackforth pointed out that there were practical issues to overcome as well. “In Milton Keynes, there are no paid-for local papers, just a couple of free sheets that only circulate (and then very patchily) in the city itself,” he said. “In our fairly extensive rural area (71% of the borough), there is no relevant local paper to put a notice in. To put it another way, using a press notice to advertise a development in our rural area pretty well guarantees that none of the affected people will see it.”

In a letter to Steve Quartermain, the DCLG’s chief planner, Hackforth highlighted the cost of statutory newspaper notices. A survey by the Association of London Borough Planning Officers carried out in 2006/7 found that the average spend was £47,539.41 – the cost of a senior planning officer.

Hackforth also pointed to the parliamentary exemption enjoyed by the London Borough of Camden. “I think this adds further weight to my contention that the existing publicity requirements cannot be justified on a cost/benefit basis and result in an unnecessary and unjustified waste of public money.”