Planning fees and wait times 'putting people off'

Emma Carter wants to see more collaboration within the industry

A local chartered architect has said the fees for planning and building control applications are "putting some people off" getting the correct permissions.

Emma Carter, of Arc Plus, said "we are seeing development across the island that hasn't been approved or people haven't gone to the relevant authorities". Fees also rose 17% on 30 June.

She added "timescales in terms of registering planning applications" were also a factor and "the industry could be a lot more collaborative" in terms of "planners, builders, developers and architects".

The States' planning service has said increased fees make sure costs are met by those using the service rather than being funded by other taxpayers.

The service also said it aimed to make 80% of all decisions within eight weeks and 90% within 13 weeks. "which are "generally" being achieved on a week-by-week basis.

It put potential delays down to applications for housing developments often raising "issues with the application process, which need to be resolved before a decision can be made".

Chris Crew hopes to see more transparency in the planning service

An experienced town planner has also raised concerns over the timeliness of planning decisions in Guernsey.

Chris Crew, senior planning consultant at law firm Collas Crill began looking into timescales himself after the planning service stopped publishing performance data in 2020.

He said the decisions were often "slow and unwieldy", which can have a knock-on effect on future costs of developments

Mr Crew said "slow and uncertain" decision-making posed the risk of inflation "affecting building material costs and what was a viable scheme at the start maybe isn't later when the permission is granted".

He added regular performance statistics were key to helping islanders to understand how the system was or was not working.

The service said it had once again "agreed to publish regular operational updates, such as performance statistics covering timescales for determination of planning applications, alongside reports monitoring the effectiveness of Island development plan policies".