Mineral Planning Fees
Major Changes by Northern Ireland Planning Service regarding the Application of Planning Fees for Mineral Developments - outlines Gareth McCallion, Senior Town Planner
Following a review by the Northern Ireland Planning Service’s internal audit team in March and April 2010, Planning Service are now in the process of reviewing all Mineral planning applications currently with them, pending decisions, to ascertain whether or not additional fees are required prior to any further work or decisions being taken on the applications. It is also understood that Planning Service may seek to recoup “lost fees” on applications which have recently been granted planning permission.
As Quarryplan understands it, Planning Officers in Minerals Unit have been instructed to adopt a new procedure when calculating planning fees. The previous method applied since the conception of the Minerals Unit, allowed an applicant to apply for various forms of development on land under their control/ownership under one planning application. Each of the different types of development may well have attributed their own fee in line with the different fee categories. However, the applicant would have only been required to pay the largest of those fees regardless of the size of the application boundary. In other words, applicant’s were charged on the ‘area of development’ within the application site not the boundary area (red line) of their planning application which may have extended beyond the development (extraction/processing) area to include areas for mitigation such as tree planting, attenuation bunds and restoration of old workings.
In line with the new procedures, Planning Officers appear to have been instructed to no longer adopt the old approach, in favour of applying holistic approach to fee calculations. Seemingly, the new approach is being rolled out with little or no regard to the different fee categories for development, details conveyed on site layout plans and application forms, consultation with the Minerals Industry and with no apparent changes to the legislation (Fee Regulations). In many recent cases, planning fees for mineral applications are now being calculated to take into account the area as denoted by the red line application boundary and not the area within that boundary which is to be developed. It is considered that this approach does not lend itself to a value for money public service, amendments to schemes for the purpose of environmental mitigation and improvements or indeed greater scope for environmental control. This is particularly pertinent, as the fee category that the Department are seeking to apply has increased over the last decade by some 230%, with the maximum payable for these applications rising from £22,350 to £37,318 during the same period; with arguably very little improvement in performance.
To give an example, Planning Service has requested that fees of £1725 per 0.5 hectare have been requested for ancillary works such as temporary storage of topsoil and overburden material regardless of whether this material is being stored to restore the mineral workings. This is the same fee as is applicable to the actual extraction area, for the winning and working of minerals.
With the Industry already having to retain and in some cases regain precious foot holes in the Market following the recent downturn, some affiliates and clients have described the approach to planning fees being rolled by Planning Service since April 2010 as “untimely and outrageous”; particularly with no prior warning or consultation.
Quarryplan has already taken some steps to endeavour to address this issue. Quarryplan’s Director, Andrew Scurfield along with the QPANI Regional Director, Gordon Best, have met with the Environment Minister (Edwin Poots) and highlighted the potential threats the change in approach to the application of planning fees could cause the Industry. Furthermore, Quarryplan has liaised with the QPA and Carson McDowell Solicitors in order to seek advice on the legality of Planning Service’s recent procedural changes. In doing so we have devised an approach in order to secure the best way forward for Clients in the interim, until the matters pertaining to fees is conclusively addressed.
If you would like advice on how best to minimise the impact of these proposed changes on existing or future applications, whilst the QPANI challenges the Department on the validity of their approach, feel free to contact us on either the Lisburn or Downpatrick Office numbers.