Council backs off from 'pay to file planning objection' bid
A council has backed away from asking Stormont to force people to pay up if they want to object to planning applications in their area.
Last month, Ards and North Down Council officials floated the idea in their response to an assembly department, also suggesting bringing in fees for anyone who wants to get trees officially protected.
Despite originally being passed by a council committee, with only two politicians going against the idea, the council as a whole has now reversed its opinion and dropped its request to introduce widespread charges.
Council officials put the ideas down in a message to the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), which is currently thinking of bringing in fees for some parts of the planning process.
The DfI’s proposed payments apply to making “non-material” changes to a property that already has permission to build, and scrapping certain conditions imposed when permission was granted. Those aren’t especially common, with the latter mostly coming into play for property developers constructing large-scale projects.
Officials at Ards and North Down Council thought the DfI’s ideas didn’t go far enough, however; they recommended also charging everyone who applies for a Tree Protection Order, as well as asking the department to consider adding fees for submitting objections to planning applications.
Making everyone in the province pay up for the privilege of objecting to something their neighbour or a developer wants to build in their area would, planning officials argued, cut waiting lists and speed up the time it takes to process applications.
Only two members of the local authority’s Planning Committee disagreed with the move, Alliance’s Patricia Morgan and Lauren Kendall of the Greens; at a recent full council meeting, however, politicians voted to withdraw requests for objection and Tree Protection Order fees.
Said Ms Morgan: “Introducing the charges would be unfair, a retrograde step, and would not improve the planning service.
“We should view objections as a positive contribution to the planning process. We should not be aiming to restrict [them].”
DUP alderman Stephen McIlveen said charging to object would “disadvantage legitimate neighbours who feel impacted, and want things taken into consideration.”
And Ms Kendall argued introducing fees would not “serve the public interest”, adding it would “erect financial barriers to public participation”.