Amendments to Planning Permissions

We are often asked to assist developers post consent when they need to amend or make ordinarily modest changes to schemes, sometimes as a result of oversight,  regulatory change or just packaging a scheme.  Past Court decisions have meant Councils have often been reluctant to agree any variations to permissions without formality of a new application.  

From 01 September the Welsh Government a new procedures will be introduced in Wales deal to formalise non material changes position.  It has been operating in England for some time with "some" success.  Published guidance can be read here.

A)  Non Material Amendments:  Small changes based on four tests dealing with scale of change and degree of impact, effect on other parties and conflict with policy. A non-material amendment application can be used to modify planning conditions on a permission and can be sought if required retrospectively. It can be done before during or after a development is completed.   

LPA's will no longer be able to deal with non material changes informally (e.g exchange of letter).  So we expect to see quite an upsurge in this type of application. 

A standard application form must be used and the Council has 28 days to make its decision and a fee payable to the Council. If refused, there is no right of appeal but the option to use the following routes would be available.

B) Minor Material Changes and Major Material Changes:

S73 applications can be used to make minor materials changes to developments - where they are not "non-material" (As has always been the case and practice).  Where there is no condition on a permission (ordinarily one that requires development to be carried our in accordance with the approved plans) the non-material change approach can in the first instance be used to secure such a condition, although we are struggling to see the merit in that.

There is a right of appeal to a refusal of an application under S73(in effect a new permission)  as in the past.

The new guidance stresses the importance of dialogue and pre-application discussion to ensure the best route is taken. We trust that Development Management teams remain suitably resourced to ensure that officers are well versed with the changes and operate with the necessary flexibility to make these changes work.