Planning Delays - Confused where we stand

It does seem a lot of fuss about nothing.

Oh dear! Trees! Oh s**t! Survey on desk! Trees not a problem! Stop the clock! Reconsult the neighbours and the parish council! Show them the pretty trees! How interesting! Are they a problem? No!.........

I also work in a public organisation. There's a lot of stuff that gets done 'because that's what the rules say' which actually cause hold ups and problems and don't serve any purpose. I guess I'm strugglign with the 'not serving any purpose'

Have a rant at your stupid lying lazy architect, don't keep bleating on here then! Threaten to lodge a formal complaint with the RIBA (assuming he's registered) and watch him squirm!
 
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On the grounds of professional negligence, lying, incompetence .........

Why so much defence for him?

We have told you why it has to go through the system but you keep saying its not fair. Its just the system. If your architect had not lied on the form it would have been validated.
 
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I wish I were... ;)

Not sure why you had to quote my message in full, though.

Are you drunk ?
 
You are quite right of course, I have edited my quote, I suspect it would help if I were drunk, your posts tonight would make more sense! :mrgreen:
 
Does the question on the planning application form ask whether there are any trees within the boundary or adjacent to it that are within falling distance of the proposal? If they aren't, maybe the architect wasn't lazy, lying or incompetent. The tree survey has come back saying that the trees are not hgoing to affect or be affected by the development - maybe the architect knew this would be the case so didn't note them on the drawing?

I often ignore trees on my applications if i don't think they will influence the extension.

How much money does a tree survey cost and are they necessary, can the architect not just state what trees they are and where they are?
 
The OP wrote:
We submitted plans for an extension in February. We are due a decision next week (April 20th) as that's 8 weeks since we put the plans in.

Our architect submitted the application as our 'agent'. When asked whether there were any trees closeby, he ticked 'no' despite there being three large trees, the closest about 3.5 metres away from the proposed development. We didn't see the application before it was submitted but later read it online.

One of our neighbours has objected. One of his objections is that the application is incorrect since it says there are no trees in close proximity. Our architect says he ticked 'no' because he knows the planners and they always advise to tick ;no' to save him the trouble of plotting out every tree on the boundary. They apparently advise that they will ask for a tree survey if they think it requires one once they carry out the site visit.
If the planning authority told him that a tree survey may be required along the way then he ought to have made that clear when submitting the application, I would have done, why should you leave yourself open to criticism? Failing to do so just raises suspicions in the clients mind (and rightly so) if the worst should happen, which it did. Personally I find it very hard to believe that anyone from a planning department would just say don't bother plotting all the trees on, save yourself a bit of effort Mr Agent!
Does the question on the planning application form ask whether there are any trees within the boundary or adjacent to it that are within falling distance of the proposal? If they aren't, maybe the architect wasn't lazy, lying or incompetent. The tree survey has come back saying that the trees are not hgoing to affect or be affected by the development - maybe the architect knew this would be the case so didn't note them on the drawing?

I often ignore trees on my applications if i don't think they will influence the extension.

How much money does a tree survey cost and are they necessary, can the architect not just state what trees they are and where they are?
It depends what is required in order to validate the application. Authority's vary ASFAIK, Plymouth for instance now insist upon you indicating any tress within falling distance, to ignore the requirements of the authority because you deem it to be red tape will be a poor defence should an application be invalidated because of your poor judgement just as in the OP's case. Are you saying the authority's near you insist on tree surveys to accompany planning apps?

Its really not that hard to plot a few trees on a site plan and a lot different (£££s) to having to cough up for a tree survey which the client would have to pay anyway.
 
Freddy,

i only omit the trees if i beleive they will not affect the extension. Are you saying that in Plymouth, the L.A. requires trees to be plotted if they are within falling distance AND a tree survey? or do they just want to know that the trees are there - and then after a site visit decide whether a survey is required?

In this case, i can understand that you call the architect lazy for not plotting on the trees, i understand that no planning officer would advise to ignore the question out of hand, but surely, if he had plotted the trees, the application would have been validated and then a survey requested within the 8 week period?

Do you know how much a tree survey costs and what information it consists? I have no idea as i have never done one in over 10years of designing extensions...
 
Plymouth ask for the position of any trees to be marked on a drawing, they do not ask for a survey.

I would hazard that the architect chose to leave the trees off the drawings and the fact that the planners asked for a survey too is a red herring and the real reason is because he missed or ignored them in the first place. The authority's justification in invalidating the app being that when the drawings were sent out initially for public consultation and were available to comment on by Joe Public the relevant parties etc the drawings did not reflect reality.

Like everything tree surveys vary from a few hundred to a few thousand depending on their content and who does them.
 
If the LPA does not give you a decision by eight weeks after the application was validated, then you can automatically appeal to the Planning Inspectorate on the grounds of non-determination

Can you?

I have an application still with no decision and i,m in week 9 at the moment. The officer refuses to respond to any communication too
 
If the LPA does not give you a decision by eight weeks after the application was validated, then you can automatically appeal to the Planning Inspectorate on the grounds of non-determination

Can you?

I have an application still with no decision and i,m in week 9 at the moment. The officer refuses to respond to any communication too

Decision must be made in 8 weeks. If not the applicant can appeal.

I've never heard of planners un-validating an application. As far as I know once it's validated the only option is decision or withdraw. And they won't withdraw without written instructions. But it is Scotland so who knows what mumbo jumbo they deal in up there?

Trees are sometimes a grey area. I tend to agree with polstar in that I do sometimes not mention trees if I am sure they are not relevant. If I'm not sure I would usually just include trees on a block plan myself. I can only think of a couple occasions when I have had a tree survey done pre-submission. So it must be a fairly rare occurence. And my patch is quite rural. (so to speak)
 
Trouble with an appeal that can take months too.
Planning departments have you by the whatsits!

Planners tend to leave even looking at applications until the 7th week, then demand some report. Bat survey, Tree survey, Great crested newt, they always find some way of wriggling out of it.
 
Planners tend to leave even looking at applications until the 7th week, then demand some report. Bat survey, Tree survey, Great crested newt, they always find some way of wriggling out of it.

Well no... they're requested at validation stage, not towards the end of the decision process.
 
That is not always true.
I have had several planning applications in the past that i have had to withdraw at a late stage as a specific survey was requested. Recently a bat survey was requested in week 7, meaning i had to withdraw the application and resubmit.
 

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