A West Cumbrian council says its free pre-application advice service is the reason it has one of the highest planning application approval rates in the UK.
Last year Copeland council approved 99 per cent of all planning applications, with all ‘major’ applications – including large housing estates and office space – determined within a 13-week deadline.
According to the planning team, preliminary discussions offered to agents and applicants ahead of an application being lodged helped to identify any significant issues that may have stood in the way of permission being granted, allowing them to be resolved early in the process.
Nick Hayhurst, Copeland’s planning and place manager, said: “We are thrilled with our performance statistics for 2020/21.
“The discussions we have with applicants and agents at the pre-application stage ensure that the proposals are submitted in a form where they have a reasonable chance of obtaining planning permission, and this is reflected in the high number of applications approved.
“Whilst speed of decision is important, this is not at the expense of the quality of the outcome, and we work hard to achieve high quality development. In seeking consistently high standards, developers know that a timely decision is predicated on the submission of high-quality applications.”
Copeland also has one of the highest rates nationally for the speed in which it made decisions on planning applications in 2020/21, far exceeding government-set targets, while
85 per cent of planning appeals lodged against the council’s decision were dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate.
Mike Starkie, mayor of Copeland, said: “This is an outstanding achievement for the team which puts it, once again, among the country’s best.
“For the fifth consecutive year, our planning department has not only achieved government-set targets, but surpassed every one of them by a significant margin.
“For this to be achieved during the COVID pandemic – and the challenges this has created for the team – is phenomenal and they deserve tremendous credit.”
