Tim Watts wrote:

On 05/12/16 17:59, Andrew Mawson wrote:


When I was considering building a new tractor shed and wanted help from
Rother there was none ! All they would say was 'put in an application
and find out' - so pretty useless. Time was when you could get guidance
talking to a human being, but councils don't seem to employ them any
more In the event I slapped a 28 day notice on them and they accepted
it still cost £80 plus £100 for plans


That's the impression I got from Rother too (same council as you know).

The BCOs are great though - at least the two I met.

I suspect the BCOs are practical types that don't mind meeting the
public, whereas planning are faceless bureaucrats with no sense of
public service.

I think planning applications should be free and paid for out of council
tax - they are for the most part for *everyone else's* benefit and not
the applicant's.


My experience some decades back is that planning officers were highly
approachable and helpful. I think there has been some central
government edict demanding that councils make "efficiency savings" by
preventing their planning officers from giving unpaid informal advice.
Probably enabled them to sack half of them.

--

Roger Hayter