Higher fees for retrospective planning applications have been suggested by the National Association of Local Councils in order to combat the increasing number of developments started in advance of planning permission being granted or even without it. Planning authorities cannot deal with every breach of control, NALC says, since enforcement involves complicated and substantial administrative effort. Often it is the non-major project without permission which produces a final result offensive to the local environment. If could have been dealt with at the application stage, but it is not important enough to warrant enforcement proceedings leading to demolition or reconstruction. If proper procedures had been followed, developments, with which the surrounding population has to live, might have been properly controlled by conditions attached to the permission, amending the unsatisfactory aspects.
In addition to higher fees, NALC wants to see the law strengthened so that in the more serious cases breaches of the planning law would be summary offences triable in magistrates’ courts.
