Planning
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Links Kent County Council Planning Histories Mobile Phone Masts |
How to
Comment on Planning Applications With the cases of the proposed telephone masts, planning is very much in the news, so we thought it would be helpful to set out how best to comment on applications. 1. Preliminaries Applications are dealt with (except in a very few cases) by Sevenoaks District Council. If the applicant does not own all the interests in the land, then they have to let others know by serving notice on them. In the case of the telephone mast at Downs Valley, Orange did not serve notice on the correct person, so their application was not deemed to be valid until they had done so. Sevenoaks must by law tell the parish council, and they must either put up a site notice or serve a notice on all adjoining landowners and occupiers. Sevenoaks tends to do the latter, but site notices are often dispensed with. Sevenoaks also publishes a weekly list of applications which is sent to Hartley Library, and is also put on their website (www.sevenoaks.gov.uk). Note down the number of the application (eg. SE/02/00001 etc) to quote on your letter to Sevenoaks. 2. Commenting on Applications If you are in favour of an application, you can write too! Your neighbour will probably be grateful for the support. If you want to object, then you must be aware that the council can only take account of some objections. By law they must base their decision on the district plan and "other material considerations". Therefore the district plan is the starting point. You can see a copy of it in Hartley library (it is now also available on the Sevenoaks Council Website). What construes other material considerations is less easy to explain briefly, mostly they have been decided by the courts. One of the common grounds to oppose applications is "neighbour amenity", that is an adverse affect on surrounding properties through noise, overlooking etc. If you think the application is not following the district plan, note down the paragraph number when writing to the council. However there will often be clauses in the plan which will help the applicant, so the council will have to balance various factors. You must act fairly quickly to comment, as the council is meant to come to a decision within 8 weeks. Try to answer within 3 weeks. Most applications will be decided by the council officers, only about 10% go to the council's planning committee. Applications where the officers and parish council disagree often go to committee, as cases where a district councillor requests it. Anyone who has written should be informed of the date of the meeting, and one person for and against has the chance to speak for no more than 3 minutes. You can write or e-mail your comments to Sevenoaks. 3. The Decision Once the council has made a decision they will let anyone who has written know. Here lies one of the unfairnesses of the present system. The applicant has the right to appeal against the council's decision, but local objectors in effect do not. An appeal is heard by an inspector appointed by Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, but the minister can also "call in" applications, that is take the decision away from the council. 4. Enforcement This is the proceedure when someone should have applied for planning permission and has not. This is dealt with by another division of the planning department, they serve "enforcement notices" requiring the landowner to remedy the breach. Recent local examples include the kebab shop in Cherry Trees, and Manor Field, where the parish council kept a decrepit portakabin without consent. |