Westmorland and Furness Council's Eden Area planning committee is set to meet Wednesday morning at Penrith town hall to finally consider a long-pending planning applications, which has faced a two-year delay in the council reaching a determination on the application and is one of many such applications still awaiting a decision.
This delay has drawn criticism from concerned parties, including the Penrith Peoples Planning Assembly, as applicants are forced to take risks and proceed with developments without official approval due to the protracted processing times.
The planning committee meeting will only be asked to consider two of the councils 352 current live planning applications during the council planning meeting on Wednesday.
One of the two applications under scrutiny by the committee is for the establishment of a trailer parking area on Greystoke Road intended for Omega Proteins, Originally submitted to the now former Eden District Council on September 24, 2021. The statutory consultation period for the application ended on November 3, 2021, during which Penrith Town Council, Cumbria Highways, and the Environment Agency raised no objections.
However, the former Eden District Council and now Westmorland and Furness Council, as the local planning authority, failed to adhere to the timescales set out in legislation for determining the application.
According to the Town and Country Planning Act, planning applications should be decided within eight weeks of receipt, except for more complex or larger applications, which have a maximum processing time of 13 weeks. The presence of an Environmental Impact Assessment can extend the period to 16 weeks.
The application by Omega Proteins seeks to construct a trailer park that will support their existing facility by providing storage for clean trailers. This segregation ensures compliance with stringent food hygiene standards, minimizing the risk of cross-contamination between recently used and clean trailers.
A report from planning officers at Westmorland and Furness Council recommends approval of the application but notes its retrospective nature. It mentions that development work has already commenced on the site without planning approval, and the applicants are cognizant of the risks they face should the application be denied or approved with unanticipated conditions.
Planning officers at the council have said “It is disappointing to see that development has already commenced on this site prior to the consideration of the application. This has rendered the application retrospective in nature. The applicants are aware of the risk they face should the application be refused or approved with conditions they did not foresee. It is understood they have chosen to take this risk in pursuit of improving their existing operation practices on site to keep clean and used vehicles separate and thus minimise the risk of cross-contamination which, if it were to occur could have very serious consequences.”
The Head of Planning for Westmorland and Furness Council has requested the Eden planning committee's consideration of this application.
A spokesperson for the Penrith Peoples Planning Assembly, who expressed support for the application with the request for some conditions to be placed around lighting during the 2021 consultation period, voiced frustration over the delays, stating, "It's frustrating to see failures and delays by a local planning authority delaying developments and risking impacting businesses that are then forced through legislative and business operation needs to carry out works without planning approval and risk refusal because the local planning authority has failed to determine an application in the legally required timeframes. This is not just an issue with this application; the council has a number of applications for multiple applicants still awaiting determination over a year after the applications were submitted to the council."
Westmorland and Furness Council's planning portal currently lists 352 live planning applications awaiting determination, some of which date back to 2020 and 2019. Many of the applications now over three years old have become retrospective applications, due to the council's failure to render decisions, with some cases experiencing delays of over three years.
Have you been impacted by delays to planning applications in the local area?
Then select "Add to Home Screen"
