Planning hassles

coogee moto

Hi ,

I wonder could anyone tell me if I have the right to view a planning decision even though the applicant withdrew a day before the decision was due?

We have had terrible problems with our local council and planning department and a 'popular' local developer who has been trying for over a year to get an absolute monstrosity of an application passed which will destroy our community.

We have provided ample amounts of details and documents to stop the plan. Each time we provide objections to block the planning proposal the developer withdraws his application a day before the decision is due.

Its absolutely ridiculous at this point and we are convinced, as is the whole town, that certain local authority staff are very supportive of this developer.

The last application was withdrawn less than 24 hours before the planning decision was due. Now he has another application in and we are mentally exhausted with all of it.

Since he withdrew the last one right at the end we reckon we should be entitled to see the decision that had been made.

Can anyone confirm this?

Any opinions or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. We are at our wits end...it feels as if all officaldom is against us even though we have clearly shown the unsuitability of commercial development.

The_Conductor

Moved to Accommodation and Property- you will get a better response here.

EKRIUQ

I don't think you've any entitlement to see if a decision has been, because the application has been withdrawn, there probably hasn't been a decision made as it's becoming standard practice for the planners to look for more information and this would be be almost 100% certain because of the observations by you and other people. (There not called objections, it observations and submissions if you go down the road of saying you object to things you'll get nowhere.)

Also an old trick used to be if the developer thought the planning might not go through he'd withdraw the planning application a day before and everyone would think it was stopped and forget about it, then the developer would just replace the old notice with a new one, people would just think it was the old notice and then 8 weeks later planning would be granted, no laws broken. And I have heard of that working

Kipperhell

The general truth is you can only ever slow a development if they really want to get it through. Many local objections (observations) are quite petty and are really about other things they can't object to.

People complain about parking spaces and vehicular access when they really don't want a building blocking their light etc...

As a decision hasn't been reached I don't see what they would be willing to show you. And even having the preliminary decision I can't see how that is any use as you will have to make the objections again anyway.

The builder will just keep applying, the chances are the planners have no problems with the design as they would have been consulted. If the builder is slowed enough he may simply run out of money to build it. That is really the best possible outcome.

jdivision

You can see the planner's report usually but not a decision as none has been made. The planner's report is usually a good guide to the council's thought process. MAke sure your objection is done on planning grounds, not emotional ones. I see so many emotional ones when a well thought out coherent planning or development-based argument would have worked.

coogee moto

jdivision wrote: »

You can see the planner's report usually but not a decision as none has been made. The planner's report is usually a good guide to the council's thought process. MAke sure your objection is done on planning grounds, not emotional ones. I see so many emotional ones when a well thought out coherent planning or development-based argument would have worked.

Many thanks for the replys, all very helpful. We are not being emotional about it, although its starting to get that way! The councillor and builder involved have behaved really underhanded with the support of the council. But the evidence we've managed to produce and put under their noses seems to be paying dividends...finally!

One has just crossed over and now claims to be working for us, his excuse being that he was previously unaware of the extreme measures taken by his colleagues! Guess he's expecting a general election.

The council broke all their own planning guidelines, even going so far as to rezone the property as commercial in the middle of a residential area! All previous planning conditions in place on the property 'got lost' by the planning department.

It just seems there are two sets of laws...us and them. Very frustrating!