Charges to be rolled out for city planning advice

CH A R G E S f o r planning advice will be introduced in Glasgow for the first time.

City councillors have agreed to the move which will see a fee of £ 2000 for major developments and £ 150 for local schemes.

It is estimated the plan could raise around £ 50,000 for the council by March. Advice for householders will remain free.

Councillor Kenny McLean, city convener for neighbourhoods, housing and public realm, said: “It is beneficial that the planning discussions associated with proposed developments are front loaded in order to achieve good quality development.

“The fees are also intended to continue to allow the service to be resourced efficiently and delivered at consistently high standard.”

Charges are already used by 12 planning authorities in Scotland.

Labour councillor Archie Graham said: “This has been looked at on more than one occasion by the council in years gone by. The advice that was given by senior planning officials and policy development officers was that if we introduced charges, we will lose developments.

“Major developers would move their enterprise to Manchester to Liverpool, to cities similar to Glasgow. Cities like Manchester are now imposing charges themselves so that argument falls flat on its head. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t follow suit.”

Amendments to the plan were put forward by the Green group and the Tories, but did not receive enough votes.

The Tories wanted consultation with Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and other stakeholders on the “potential economic impact of the proposed charges”.

Group leader Thomas Kerr said: “Anyone with any experience of the planning system in Glasgow knows that it is already a highly bureaucratic and time- consuming process.

“While I am not in principle opposed to the idea of charging for a high- quality advice service, I am concerned that the administration sees this policy more as a revenue generator than an opportunity to stimulate economic development in Glasgow.”

The Greens wanted the council to explore a sliding scale of fees, which was “proportionate to the scale or value of the development”.

Councillor McLean was concerned the proposal could create “greater bureaucracy”.

The charges will be introduced from October 1.