Planning service charges set to rise (From Warrington Guardian)

Planning service charges set to rise

CHARGES for certain planning and building control services in Vale Royal could be on the increase.

The social review committee will meet on Wednesday and discuss proposals to hike the levy for certain planning department services, to bring them in line with other local authorities in Cheshire.

Services affected by the proposals include getting copies of decision notices; getting copies of weekly planning applications; search type questions relating to planning and building control questions; ordnance survey location plans for submission with planning applications; viewing planning applications and getting copies of background documents from a planning file.

Copies of decision notices could go up from £11 to £13, the charge for weekly lists could change from £80 per annum to £100.

However, when compared to other authorities in Cheshire, Vale Royal currently offers some of the best prices.

For instance, the council currently charges £80 a year for weekly planning lists, which is among the cheapest when compared to Macclesfield Borough Council, which charges more than £200.

Also, A3 and A4 copies of plans cost £2.50 and £1.0 respectively - compared to Chester City Council, which charges £5 and £1 and Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council, which costs £11 and £10.

Halton Borough Council is one of the most expensive, with any size copy costing £22.