Judge rules on planning fee refunds, extensions of time and non-determination

A planning fee need not be refunded if an application is left undetermined after 26 weeks if a longer period for decision has been agreed between the parties, the High Court has said.

In Provectus Remediation v Derbyshire County Council [2018] EWHC 1412 (Admin) Sir Wyn Williams, sitting as a High Court judge said Parliament’s intention had been clear when it made the relevant law.

Provectus had applied in September 2014 for planning permission for coal mining, paying a £44,752 planning fee.

The application was later withdrawn but resubmitted and remained under consideration by Derbyshire throughout 2016.

On 28 December that year Provectus appealed against Derbyshire’s failure to determine the application within the agreed extended period, and in March 2017 asked for the fee to be repaid, which Derbyshire refused.

The judge said the 26 week period after which a fee should be refunded in an undetermined case was not the statutory period within which planning applications must be determined, which could vary between eight and 16 weeks.

“It follows that the period of 26 weeks…is a period chosen specifically by Parliament and which relates to a point in time after which a fee refund may be due,” he said.

“In my judgment, however, in specifying that period (which is significantly longer than any period allowed for determining a planning application) Parliament has quite deliberately chosen to limit the circumstances in which a fee is to be refunded to those mentioned expressly in the 2012 Regulations.

“That is not surprising. The fees payable upon the submission of a planning application go some way, at the very least, to fund the administration of the whole system of planning regulation.”

He said therefore if the applicant and local authority agree in writing that the 26 week period should be extended “the planning fee paid by the applicant does not fall to be refunded even if the local planning authority fails to determine the application within the extended period”.

Mark Smulian