Bolton planning’s ‘unlawful’ failings alleged 3 years ago

Council leader Nick Peel and chief executive Sue Johnson first revealed last week that since 2013 the authority has been wrongly keeping fees paid to the planning department that it should have been refunding to the public.

Now, Cllr Peel has told fellow councillors that allegations had already been made about this behaviour around three years ago and again just last year.

He said: “I’ve done amazement, I’ve done disbelief and I’ve done anger.”

The debate took place at Bolton Town Hall (Image: Newsquest)

Cllr Peel had been addressing an often heated full meeting of Bolton Council on Wednesday evening.

He said: He said: “The original allegation was made three years ago in 2020.”

He added: “Today I was made aware of additional allegations outlining additional correspondence in May 2022 on this issue.”

Council officials have already said that they do not know the full sum of money owed or how many people it is owed to but that the total is believed to run into six figures.

Planning application fees can range from just over £200 for an application to a house extension to more than £20,000 depending on the size of the application.

The relevant law came into effect in October 2013 and states that when people pay a fee to apply for planning permission then the fee should be refunded to them after 26 weeks unless a decision is made or other agreements or exemptions are in place.

For ten years, Bolton Council had been failing to pay refunds or to tell people that they were entitled to them.

The discovery of this “unlawful” behaviour has sparked incredulity and outrage at the highest levels of the authority.

Planning committee chair Cllr John Walsh said: “In the time I have been on this council, for 45 years, I have never before known of this kind of thing to be necessary.”

He says: “It is the where, the how and by whom that must be answered.”

Cllr Walsh said that questions must be answered as to why elected members were not told in 2013.

He told the meeting that “this review needs to be comprehensive, it needs to be thorough” and said it must “ensure that there is probity at the highest level in our planning system.”

In turn, Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Roger Hayes said he was “horrified” but “can hardly say surprised” when he heard about the unlawful behaviour.

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He said: “I’ve long regarded the planning department as not fit for purpose, I’ve felt for a long time that it is need of quite drastic change.”

Similarly, Conservative opposition leader Cllr Martyn Cox said he noticed during his time as leader there were “constant complaints” about planning, ranging from large scale developers to people looking for housing extensions.

He said: “What was clear to me and my colleagues was that there was something fundamentally wrong with this department.”

Ultimately, councillor voted unanimously to support Cllr Peel’s motion that a Policy Development Group would be set up to consider how to fix the issue which would make recommendations to cabinet member for regeneration Cllr Akhtar Zaman and for the place scrutiny committee.

Source – INDIA TV