FI14652

Request

  1. Please detail how the authority determine an applicant’s eligibility for a refund in accordance with the legislation. 
  2. Can you provide any official documentation, policies, or guidelines that outline the process and criteria for refund eligibility under the planning guarantee legislation? This would include any procedural steps that applicants must follow to initiate a refund request.
    1. If the authority does not have any official documentation, policies or guidelines and has not sought to create this since the inception of the legislation can you provide an explanation why?
  3. Are there circumstances, such as the statute of limitations, under which refunds would not be provided? If so, what are these circumstances? Any supporting written advice from your legal department would be of interest.
  4. Has your authority been proactive in informing applicant’s that they are due a refund of their planning application fees paid when they become eligible?
    1. If the answer to 4 is no, could you explain the rationale behind this approach?
  5. Has your authority been proactive in refunding applicant’s fees when they become eligible?
    1. If the answer to 5 is no, could you explain the rationale behind this approach?
    2. If refunds are not proactively made, can you advise what happens to the funds from the unclaimed refunds, since the legislation was implemented.
    3. Can you advise how much has the authority ‘earned’/received in funds for planning applications from applicants that was due to be returned but has not been.
  6. Please provide the contact information for submitting refund requests i.e. the relevant person/team, contact telephone number and contact email address.
  7. Please provide the contact information for the authority’s Monitoring Officer, as their oversight may be relevant to my inquiries.

Response

  1. Eligibility is determined by Regulation 9A of the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) Regulations 2012, not by the Local Authority.
  2. The relevant guidance is set out in the Government’s Planning Practice Guidance on ‘Determining a Planning Application’ (see paragraphs 002 and 004) and caselaw (Provectus Remediation Vs Derbyshire CC, which is publicly available). The Council has not produced any additional documentation in this respect, as it is addressed within the legislation and national guidance.
  3. Regulation 9A paragraph (2) stipulates certain exceptions to the requirement to refund fees in regulation 9A paragraph (1). The exception which is most frequently relevant is that found in (2)(a) “the applicant and the local planning authority, or, in the case of an application under section 62A of the 1990 Act, the Secretary of State, have agreed in writing that the application is to be determined within an extended period”. The Provectus case concerned this point and provided judicial guidance on the application of the exception.
  4. The Council actively monitors all applications to avoid a failure to meet the Planning Guarantee and works with applicants and agents to seek extensions of time where necessary
  5. Not applicable.
  6. developmentmanagement@dover.gov.uk
  7. Harvey Rudd, Solicitor to the Council and Monitoring Officer (harvey.rudd@dover.gov.uk).