£50,000 RED TAPE COST

Pointless planning red tape costs Council £50,000 a year

Councillor Neil Harrison (Lib Dem, Cotham) is criticising a Government decision to continue to force councils to pay for expensive newspaper adverts for planning applications. This currently costs Bristol City Council £50,000 a year.

The decision was taken in December 2009 as part of a consultation into national planning rules, against the advice of the planning officers’ professional body. Councils will continue to be legally required to advertise certain types of planning applications in local newspapers.

Councillor Harrison says, “This is a bizarre, but pricey, hang-over from a bygone age.”

“Research has shown that practically no-one finds out about these planning applications from local newspapers. They find out on the web, through community organisations, from notification boards or through word-of-mouth.”

“This is a pointless and frustrating waste of taxpayers’ money that Bristol City Council has no control over. Across the country, this is estimated to cost £13 million!”

“Councils are continually told by national politicians that they need to offer value-for-money. Here we have a situation which costs a sizable amount of money for very little value. I hope when the next government, of whatever colour, comes looking to cut council budgets, they will remember complete follies like this.”

“We should be focusing on new ways of involving local people and communities, not wasting money on something which just doesn’t work anymore.”

Notes for editors :

1. Councillor Harrison can be contacted on 07720 718037 for further comment.

2. It is planning applications relating to listed buildings, footpaths and similar that need to be advertised in this way. Most are minor changes of no public interest.

3. The advice of the Planning Officers Society can be found here:
www.planningofficers.org.uk/media/www/documents/Publicity-for-Planning-A...

4. The Department of Communities and Local Government report where the decision was revealed can be found here:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/1419562....