The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Major Fife planning applications taking more than a year
Questions have been asked of Fife Council officials after recent figures suggested major planning applications were taking more than a year on average to determine.
The issue was raised at yesterday’s scrutiny committee in Glenrothes.
Members wanted to know why performance indicators for December revealed it was typically taking 54 weeks to deal with such applications.
The statutory time period to determine a major application – such as those where more than 50 units are proposed, where the application site exceeds two hectares or where the development needs an environmental impact assessment – is four months, compared to just two months for a local application.
However, councillors were assured Fife’s performance is now moving in the right direction – with the latest quarter showing a 24-week average.
Kevin Treadwell, major business and customer service manager, said: “The service is aware of the factors affecting our ability to determine major applications timeously and have implemented specific interventions to minimise the impact of these.”
Councillors heard the need to consult with external agencies such as Scottish Water, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Coal Authority often threw up issues that required more time to resolve. Another challenge in determining major housing applications is the need to ensure adequate school capacity exists at both secondary and primary level.
The need for legal agreements or technical information from applicants were also classed as contributory factors.
A number of examples were highlighted in a report to committee, such as the six years it took to determine an application to extract coal from Wellsgreen.
That delay was caused by the applicant having to test a wider market after the local coal market collapsed. Issues caused by a pipeline – which necessitated the involvement of the Health and Safety Executive – were also to blame for the three-plus years it took to determine an application for Lochgelly Golf Course.