SIC Planning department

[Twerto]

In particularly the Policy Control Section.

 

Not being personally involved with them. I have spent the last year hearing various absurd stories coming in relation to this department.

 

It has left me wondering if is something planners are taught at university or not.. to make work 100 times more difficult for themselves than it needs to be.

 

most recent story is a colleague is building a house.. phones up to see how the application was progressing. this person was told that it had to go to planning sub planning community meeting, but they wouldn't tell him why. So he heads round the planning office to look through his file and it turns out it was because of the colour he had chosen to paint the house. It may be just me, but surely if this had been relayed to him over the phone. an agreement could of been met saving the time and hassle of it going to the sub planning community meeting ( this particular application has been waiting for approval since January and the sub meeting isn't till June. )

[Ghostrider]

Time to resurrect this thread I think.

 

I was just having a nose through some recent planning applications, and came across one I'm still shaking my head over....

 

Existing house, owners applying to build a small extension. Simple. Ha, not when the SIC Planning Dept get at it. Okay, fairs fair, Planning didn't make the initial mistakes, the applicant did, but Planning never noticed any of them.

 

Notwithstanding that some neighbouring property *may* have changed hands, although I very much doubt it. To the best of my knowledge six different property owners probably should fall within the 20m or whatever it is neighbour notification radius. The applicant only lists three owners, only two of which are correct, the third is a neighbouring owner, but much further away.

 

Only two properties are assigned to their correct owners, three are assigned to incorrect owners, and one property is ignored and unallocated to any owner. Oh yeah, and while the correct site map accompanies the other relevant paperwork, the name and address printed on the map by the Architect states its for a proposed development to be undertaken by someone else at a location as near the northern tip of the Shetland Mainland, as this one is near the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland.

 

The unbelievable thing is this application got through the Planning Department in this condition - Did anyone there actually read it, and if they did, did they even do any basic checks on the info supplied by the applicant??? No, and no, seem the obvious answers! Then, it got nodded through by the Planning Committee, AND by the full Council...and it probably got past the Community Council before that.

 

Come on guys and gals, I can accept that probably no-one on the council had adequate personal knowledge of property in that particular area to query what was on the paperwork, but didn't at least one of you 22 notice a site map for a Ness planning application said it was the map of a proposed development to be undertaken by a Mr B at a Northmavine address.

 

Remind me someone, why do we have a Planning Department, why do we have a Planning Committee?!?

[MuckleJoannie]

I've queried in the past why I havn't got neighbourhood notifications for developments near my house and been told Planning just accept what the applicant puts on their application.

[ISOT]

Well I know someone who has a property in the conservation area of Lerwick who has been waiting more than a year now to have 2 doors replaced, partly because they(planning) don't have photos of the original doors(pre 1900)! The owner told them they would be willing to install whatever type/size/style of door planning told them to put in just to speed the process up.

 

Crazy, I would like to know how much that has cost in wages in terms of meetings, site visits and generally staring into thin air wondering what the doors MAY have looked like 130 year ago!

 

Cheers

[Graeme_Storey]

^^^ ISOT - that is plain crazy!!

[ISOT]

^^^ ISOT - that is plain crazy!!

 

Crazy but 100% true Graeme. I bet there are plenty more similar stories that you never hear about.

 

I told the owner they should get in touch with a senior member at the Planning Dept. but they don't want to make a fuss incase they become awkward when it comes to future plans for the building.

 

Cheers

[Ghostrider]

I've queried in the past why I havn't got neighbourhood notifications for developments near my house and been told Planning just accept what the applicant puts on their application.

 

It kinda begs the question then, why bother with the neighbour notification part of it all.

 

If they're not going to at least do a basic check, someone planning something who suspects a neighbour might be difficult about it. Just needs to "forget" to allocate, or incorrectly allocate the relevant property, and with a bit of luck the neighbour in question won't happen to notice the application elsewhere, and it'll go through without that neighbour having the opportunity to cite, perhaps very valid objections, against the proposed works.

 

It makes a mockery of a great deal of what planning permission is supposed to be about.

[Carlos]

If the neightbour info was not correct would it potentially invalidate the planning permission?

[Ghostrider]

^^ I wouldn't know, but it would be an interesting question to know the answer to.

 

The fact that the among the application paperwork for a proposed house extension by Mr K of XXXXXXXXXXX, Dunrossness, there is one document, which clearly shows one aspect of the proposed works on Mr K's site. That states in the bottom right corner (put there by the architect), that the document shows one aspect of the proposed house extension by Mr B of XXXXXXXXX, Northmavine, cannot be doing much to enhance its legality either.