21 February 2005

QPA Anger at over 200% Rise in Planning Application Fees

Government has announced a staggering 203% rise in the maximum planning application fee to which most large minerals working proposals will be subject.

Just two weeks after the Consultation on the fees proposed closed, the ODPM Minister Keith Hill MP introduced the draft regulations into the House of Commons with the intention of their coming into force on 1 April.

QPA strongly opposed these huge rises which will cost the aggregates industries £1.8 million a year, for a service already paid for through the system of Business Rates.

QPA's Planning Director Duncan Pollock said "for the Government to announce this huge increase in fees only two weeks after the end of the consultation suggests the consultation was a bogus exercise with a predetermined outcome. This is yet another stealth tax to be imposed on the aggregates industry and our customers 40% of whom are in the public sector."

The QPA made a constructive and considered response to this ODPM consultation. Our view was that for mineral applications, which often take up to a year to determine, if there were higher fees, these should be part of a delivery contract between the applicant and the planning authority. This should mean that once the agreed timescale for determination has been overrun, then the fee should be subject to a "penalty refund" set at, say, 10% for each week of the overrun.

"It is so frustrating," said Duncan Pollock, "to know that however well-researched a response to an ODPM consultation is, no matter what positive suggestions are made, all such submissions are ignored in favour of the Government's pre-set agenda and within two weeks of the close of their deadline. This brings the whole process of planning consultation into disrepute."

ENDS

If you need any more information, please contact our Press office or return to the News homepage