Housing Application at Rossendale United

MAZE Planning Solutions has submitted an outline planning application for housing development on the former Rossendale United ground at Dark Lane, Newchurch, on behalf of the owner, Rossendale United Holdings Ltd.  The application follows public consultation undertaken in the spring and proposes a development of 50 family homes, together with a commitment to provide a financial injection to sport and recreation facilities serving the local community in Newchurch.

Rossendale United ceased to be an active football club at the end of the 2009/2010 football season when it was expelled from the Vodkat League because funds were not available to cover the costs of a playing campaign.  Significant debts had built up and there was no way of balancing the books.

In January this year the club’s redundant Dark Lane ground in the Newchurch area of Rossendale was subjected to an arson attack that destroyed the main stand, drawing attention to the need to identify a long term use for the site.

Andrew Watt of MAZE Planning Solutions said:

“We are pleased to have now moved on to the formal planning application process.  It brings the prospect of sorting out the mess that now exists at Dark Lane nearer to a conclusion. 

The need to improve the supply of housing development opportunities in Rossendale Borough is self-evident.  The land at Dark Lane is well suited to help the Council achieve that objective.  It sits in the midst of established housing and residential use is the only realistic alternative for it.

We will work through the application process carefully with the officers at Rossendale over the coming weeks and are hopeful of securing their support and a planning permission early in the New Year.” 

 The proposed development layout can be viewed here.

Helping Barnardo's in Blackpool

 

MAZE Planning Solutions is pleased to have helped children's charity Barnardo's establish a new donation centre and shop in Blackpool.

MAZE secured planning permission with the support of officers at Blackpool Council in August to enable Barnardo's to occupy a 550 sq.m (6,000 sq.ft) vacant unit at Cherry Tree Retail Park, Blackpool, FY4 4PH.

The new use combines a 'front of house' retail space together with a larger area devoted  to receiving, sorting and redistributing donated goods to maintain a flow of stock for the charity's established network of stores in the Fylde coast area.

MAZE acted for the retail park owner, Laketime Holiday Ltd.  

Letting agent: Robert Pinkus & Co 

Landlord's legal adviser: Napthens Solicitors

Planning Shake Up

Secretary of State Eric Pickles MP has outlined new measures today intended to give a shot in the arm to the development industry as Government searches for ways to heart-start the UK's stumbling economic performance. 

The reforms, which are proposed to be brought about swiftly to reduce planning delays, include:

• Relaxing permitted development rights for extensions to homes, shops and commercial premises
• Using the Planning Inspectorate to determine planning applications as a substitute for any local authorities with a track record of consistently poor performance.
• Broadening the definition of schemes that will be determined centrally by the Planning Inspectorate, as nationally significant infrastructure projects, to include some commercial and business developments.
• Speeding up the planning appeals process to help bring quicker decisions on commercial development projects in particular.
• Extension by a further year of the October 2009 provisions, Greater Flexibility for Planning Permissions, which enable extensions to the time limits for implementing planning permissions.  Permissions granted on or before 01 October 2010 which remain alive can be renewed by a simplified procedure if they are in danger of lapsing.
• Addressing the viability of developments that are tied to affordable housing contributions which, if reduced or removed, would help housing developments get started.  Local authorities are encouraged to deal with such matters positively and immediately, ahead of any legislative changes.

The Secretary of State's full statement can be viewed here. 

Gateshead Housing Application Submitted

MAZE Planning Solutions has submitted an outline planning application for development of 7 houses in the village of High Spen, Gateshead, on behalf of the owner, Northern Properties.

Maze first secured planning permission for development on the site in 2006.  The revised scheme provides an alternative form of housing to appeal to the current market and preserves an existing home on the site which was previously due to be sacrificed to the development scheme.

Click here for a 3D image of the proposed scheme

Interested purchasers can contact Stephen Smith at Ashley Smith Chartered Surveyors in Durham for further details.

Planning Application Fees - Autumn Increase

Decentralisation Minister, Greg Clark has issued a written statement this afternoon, announcing an increase in planning application fees of 15%, which will take effect in the autumn.

Current fee rates were set in 2008 and the proposed increase is described by Clark a "one-off adjustment to up-rate fees in line with inflation".

The increase is intended to address a shortfall in fee income against the cost of processing applications, the balance of which Clark says, "has to be subsidised by ordinary council tax payers, who end up subsidising the planning process".

The announcement seems to have ended the possibility of Local Authorities being able to set their own planning application fee rates - that change to the present system was subject to consultation in November 2010, launched by Greg Clark.

Rossendale United - Planning Application Imminent

Coverage in this week's Lancashire Telegraph confirms that preparations for submission of a planning application for housing development on the former Rossendale United football ground are at an advanced stage.

MAZE Planning Solutions is leading the application process, following on from public consultation undertaken during the spring which sought feedback on the proposed 50 home development. 

Click here to read the Lancashire Telegraph Article.

The Importance of Proof

If, like Maze Planning, you are involved in making or determining 'prior approval' applications for development, the landscape has just changed.

The 'prior approval' process is most commonly used for telecoms masts and antennae, agricultural and forestry development, and before demolition of buildings, to give local planning authorities an opportunity to consider if the proposal is Permitted Development (ie not requiring an application for planning permission) and that the details of the particular scheme, such as those relating to siting and materials, are acceptable.

The requirement to seek 'prior approval' is matched by strict time limits which local authorities must adhere to when dealing with the submission.  If a local authority sends no notification within the specified time limit, then the prior approval process is deemed to have been satisfied and the development can go ahead in the form submitted.

A recent legal case has directed that a local authority must be able to prove that it sent a timely response if it is later to rely on that to query the development concerned.  In effect, nothing short of recorded delivery will do to ensure there is proof of both sending and subsequent receipt by the applicant.

The cases in Walsall and Dartford both concerned telecoms mast development, where the local authorities had come to the view that the proposed development was not Permitted Development, and should be rejected.  Letters to that effect were posted but the applicants later said they were never received, so they pressed ahead with the mast installations.  The judge concluded that the local authority notifications could not be deemed to have been properly served at the time of posting because it was key that the relevant information reached the applicant - the simple act of posting did not guarantee that outcome, and was refutable evidence.

Applicants are not going to actively pursue the receipt of timely prior approval decisions because it is to their advantage that the prescribed determination period passes without event, so the responsibility, and burden of proof for timely notification, rests firmly with the determining authority.

There are alternatives to recorded delivery notification - good old fax, if that line of communication is available, and email, so long as there's a follow up mechanism in place to ensure that the email is received by the correct person / organisation and acknowledged within the statutory time limit.  Rightly or wrongly, anything less robust can quite simply be denied by the Applicant.