Planning fee all depends on the work; Commercial Property WHO'S PLANNING WHAT? wardhadaway law firm.

Byline: TIM WHEELE

THE latest increase in planning fees was accompanied by a Government circular that aims to explain the correct amounts to be paid for different types of development.

Towards the end of the document there is a section that introduces a new procedure for councils to consider the information required to discharge planning conditions, and a new fee that must be paid to the council.

Making sure that planning conditions are properly complied with is important.

In the past, it has sometimes been the case that minor conditions attached to some permissions have been paid little attention by either developers or the council, and the written evidence that all conditions have been fully met has been lacking.

So hopefully the new procedure for this will encourage councils and developers to be thorough in making sure that all requirements are met.

The basics of the new arrangements are that an pounds 85 fee will normally be charged for a request to discharge one or more conditions.

So the good news is that you could apply for six conditions to be discharged at one time and still only pay one pounds 85 fee.

The council should decide your request within eight weeks, and there is the right to appeal if no decision has been reached or the request has been refused.

If the council doesn't decide the submission one way or another after 12 weeks, they must refund the fee. In the case of householder development the fee is only pounds 25, which typically could be a condition requiring the extension to be built of bricks to match the existing house.

The bad news is that if your request to discharge the condition is refused, a further fee must be paid for the revised submission.

In addition, if you aren't able to process all your conditions at one time, you will have to pay the pounds 85 each time you apply.

The fee must be paid when a request is made, not retrospectively, and requests must be made in written form and must be clear and legible.

The new arrangements seem to have caused some confusion and not all councils are implementing the new arrangements in exactly the same way.

Tim Wheeler is a senior planner at Ward Hadaway law firm in Newcastle