Archived Planning Files

Poor Uncle Tom

I went to the LA's planning office to inspect a 2002 planning file for final certification only to be told the file had been archived and retrieval would take 10 to 14 days and cost €70.

Maybe I'm a skeptic, but this smacks of being a money making ploy. In the long run it isn't the money but the huge delay which is so annoying.

Anyway I would like to find out about other LA's, how far back for archived filing and how much to retrieve?

sydthebeat

in laois they only keep 5 years of files on site, anything older has to be retrieved from a strorage warehouse at a cost of 68.50.... but this has always been the case for the last 10 years anyway....

RKQ

I thought files were open to the public for seven years?
2002 was six years ago!

Do you have an original file or office copy, date stamped by the Council?
This Office Copy could be used for Certification comparison on site.

Seems abit unfair to charge for such a relatively recent file.

Poor Uncle Tom

RKQ wrote: »

Do you have an original file or office copy, date stamped by the Council? This Office Copy could be used for Certification comparison on site.

No, this is a supervision job only, I didn't do the original planning, but as part of the certification process I must inspect the files regarding the site.

No6

In Mayo County anything since 2002 is available online for free and everything prior to that is avaiable on microfiche, inspection is free, you just pay for printing copies, the only drawback with this system is they sometimes get lost so it becomes impossible to know what was granted permission in the first place oops

muffler

Donegal - files more than 7 years incur a €30 retrieval fee.

damiand

Hi,

It may seem like extorsion but with nearly all councils files are stored with a professional storage companies for insurance/ safety and maintenace purposes and the retreival costs are the actual costs of that company retreiving the files (that being thats what they charge the council).

Old files take up a lot of space. One problem is that files can No one is generally brave enough to throw away anthing.

Poor Uncle Tom

damiand wrote: »

No one is generally brave enough to throw away anthing.

Interesting comment, lets carry on this train of thought....

Should LA's visit all planning sites over 5, 7 or 10 years old, inspect regarding compliance with planning conditions, location of buildings, etc., formulate a short report and delete the actual file. Then make the report available for purchase at, say €100, 150 or 200, to offset costs.

It would regularise one aspect of our certificate of compliance, negate the need for archived storage, including the costs for same and it would give enforcement staff a real job to do.;)

No6

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

Interesting comment, lets carry on this train of thought....

Should LA's visit all planning sites over 5, 7 or 10 years old, inspect regarding compliance with planning conditions, location of buildings, etc., formulate a short report and delete the actual file. Then make the report available for purchase at, say €100, 150 or 200, to offset costs.

It would regularise one aspect of our certificate of compliance, negate the need for archived storage, including the costs for same and it would give enforcement staff a real job to do.;)

Its a good idea in theory Uncle Tom but dont you know in practice they'd manage to make a large white elephant or something similar out of it and we'd end up being worse off and the only records available are the ones we keep ourselves!!!:D

sydthebeat

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

Interesting comment, lets carry on this train of thought....

Should LA's visit all planning sites over 5, 7 or 10 years old, inspect regarding compliance with planning conditions, location of buildings, etc., formulate a short report and delete the actual file. Then make the report available for purchase at, say €100, 150 or 200, to offset costs.

It would regularise one aspect of our certificate of compliance, negate the need for archived storage, including the costs for same and it would give enforcement staff a real job to do.;)

whilst makes sense in theory, in practise you are looking for the council to take responsibility for complaince with planning. we all know that compliance is based on opinion, therefore all compliance certs are open to legal challange. Councils will certainly not allow themselves to be open for such challanges. Ill post moretomorrow.