Planning Applications Index - Hartley-Kent: The Website for Hartley

Planning permission in some form has been around in Hartley since 1921.  Before the war powers of local authorities were more limited.  The Housing Town Planning etc Act 1909 gave councils powers to adopt town planning schemes for land likely to be developed to secure good sanitary conditions, amenity and convenience in their layout.  By another act in 1919 this became mandatory in development areas.  As a place with a lot of building going on, it seems the town planning scheme was applied to Hartley soon after, as the council minutes start recording approvals in 1921.  A council's powers were more limited, the scheme didn't really allow them to refuse development outright, but they could refuse plans for rooms being too small or for being a fire risk for example.  The planning system as we know it today was introduced in 1948 as a result of the Town and Country Planning Act 1947.