The Planning Department ("the Department"), on Monday
21st October, issued a press release entitled "Planning
Revamps Pre-Application Advice". A link to the full text of
the press release is here. Along with the lack of a robust planning
appeal system which was independent and based on planning merits,
one of the main perceived weaknesses with the local Planning system
has been the lack of pre-application advice which could be relied
upon and which carried weight within the planning process.
Too often in the past, the advice given by way of
pre-application advice lacked formality and, far worse, when issued
by the case officer may often have been ignored when a more senior
officer within the Department issued the Department's decision.
By that point in time the applicant would have spent a significant
amount of time in processing the application and would have
incurred considerable expense by way of planning fees and
professional fees in the preparation of the
