It’s all about the money
In FY 2011/12 the Planning Portal processed planning applications with a total fee value of £104m, that’s almost £9M a month!
There were 111 companies who submitted planning applications with a total fee value of more than £100,000.
There were 1,755 planning applications with an individual fee of over £10,000, including 45 applications with fees £50,000+.
The two largest applications attracted a fee of more than £250,000 each.
And I’m still driving around in a beat-up old Landrover, something wrong here!
Planning Portal Blog 
Karma
There were 111 companies who submitted planning applications with a total fee value of more than £100,000. There were 1,755 planning applications with an individual fee of over £10,000, including 45 applications with fees £50,000+.The two largest applications attracted a fee of more than £250,000 each.
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I refuse to believe that the more extreme of these fees represent mere cost recovery. The two highest for example represent covering the salary cost of around 30 (THIRTY!) planners on £50,000 a year (they should be so lucky!) for the 8 weeks statutory decision period.
“And I’m still driving around in a beat up old Landrover, something wrong here!!! ”
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FOR SALE
2007 Jaguar S-Type R : Top of the Range 4.2-litre supercharged V8 6-speed automatic :
£52,000 new.
0-60mph in 5.3 seconds.
17mpg urban ; 26mpg on a long run if you’re lucky.
Suit Planning Portal Director or other high-flying public sector employee presently driving beat-up old Landrover to present false image of impoverishment. 🙂
Ha ha,
I don’t know what you consider to be high-flying but I can guarantee I’m not it.
I’m a man of the people me!
I have had nothing but good returns from the Planning Portal which I find extremely easy to use, although there was one instance where the Inspector visited the site without letting me know and therefore did not enter the premises, and refused the appeal which was later approved with a minor adjustment to the proposal, As for your beat up old Landrover you should sell it and get a Bike much cheaper to run.
Thanks for the positive feedback Charles. As for the bike – where would I put my golf clubs?
A Typical news release from a Govt. or Council body with incorrect or doctored statistics. Yearly income of £104 Milion gives a monthly income of £9 Milion, not £900,000. So the monthly income is 10 times what was declared. But how much of that money goes to reward Local residents who provide the Planners salaries.?
And how much Section 106 agreement money came from the Plannikng Apps fo the year?
That apart, the Plannnig Portal is useful in providing an overview of what is happening elsewhere in the COunctry of UK.
Whoops, you are of course correct – can I blame the calculator?
I suppose the answer is that all the money goes to the local residents in that it goes to the Local Authority, certainly it doesn’t come the Portals way, as we make no charge for the services we provide to Local Authorities or users.
My local authority also charges for advice-which you have to apply for as well as planning applications. They can not tell me if I require planning for a solar carport unless I cross their palm with silver-is this right?.
I don’t mind planning officers playing at planning consultants and charging for advice, notwithstanding that they are paid to pursue the authority’s objectives and not to assist applicants for planning permission to win it. But to charge for advice and then add a total disclaimer that “this is officer opinion and the council may decide differently” is an outstanding temerity !
Translation: “Here’s what you’ve paid for, but understand that it may not be worth the paper it’s written on” !
If my planning consultancy offered paid advice on that basis we’d either be in Court of out of business inside 6 months, and deservedly so.
They might as well sell someone a bag of coal with the caveat “Understand that this stuff might not burn or give out any heat at all” !