Mr
Cornall presented the changes to Planning Pre-application fees to
the Committee. It was noted that:
·
The cost of providing the planning service was
exceeding the income from fees.
·
The Council was prohibited from making a profit from
this service but should aim to at least break even.
·
After a benchmarking exercise against other
authorities it was clear that the fees charged for pre-application
advice was generally lower in Maidstone than for other
authorities.
·
Therefore the report proposed to increase the fees
charged for pre-application advice.
In
response to a question from the Committee, Mr Cornall confirmed
that the fee income would be monitored by the Committee in its
regular budget monitoring reports and the overall impact on the
Planning Service of amending these fees would be monitored
closely.
RESOLVED:
That
the proposed revised fee structure and fees for the MBC
pre-application service as detailed in table 2 (para 1.10) are
implemented with effect from 1 October 2018.
Voting: For -
8
Against - 1
Abstentions – 0