Same planning application over and over?

Skatedude

Lo.
I was trying to find out if it's allowed to keep resubmitting the same planning application over and over?

A company is trying to build a large apartment complex beside me. It was already refused due to it's size and been totally out of character with the area.

But they now keep submitting the same application every few months (on 5th one now I think).

Each time is the same plans etc, just the wording on the application letter is been rearranged each time.

Is this actually allowed?
myself and the neighbors are tired of having to keep sending in the exact same observation letters each time when nothing is been changed.

sydthebeat

if the council determine that the there is absolutely no change from the previous refusal they may consider the application to be vexatious and may consider it invalid.

however... if they are getting €65 per unit + other fees on every application then they might be happy to let the validity slide

keep sending in your submission though... its only €20.... and it always leaves the door open to appeal to ABP

it might be an idea to pool your submissions together into a "residents committee" and send in one submission @ €20 but everyone sign it.

Metric Tensor

Just one thing to note - if a "pooled" submission is made during the planning it may be necessary to submit any objection to ABP with all the same signatures!

Sounds simple but you'd be surprised at the complications that could arise!

Skatedude

Cheers for the info, the application has been invalidated twice so far and some of the people did use a pooled submission, so I'll let them know.

Metric Tensor

Note my use of "may" - I honestly don't know how ABP would treat an objection that was missing some signatures.

Dudda

Skatedude wrote: »

Cheers for the info, the application has been invalidated twice so far and some of the people did use a pooled submission, so I'll let them know.

If two of the five submissions were invalidated then they only really have three valid submissions which you can object to. You can't object to an invalidated application as you don't get a chance. If the first two valid ones were rejected and we're now on five (or the third valid application) then they've probably tweaked it slightly based on the previous rejected applications. It might be a very small alteration. eg if it was rejected on sightlines they may have just changed the front boundary wall into the development or if they might have added a few extra parking spaces someplace or changed a window to opaque in a small note if it was overlooking or reduced the roof parapet to make the overall height smaller. You should look at the planners report for the previous applications and see if they've addressed these issues. Don't just submit the same observation as they may have addressed an issue you object to last time.

Skatedude

1st was refused as too big and completely out of character with the area which they appealed to ABP. Second was in place for a few weeks before been invalidated , citing the original application with ABP as the reason.
3rd was again in place for a few weeks before been withdrawn, never found out why.
4th was invalidated as they didn't put up any site notices this time.

5th was done on the 18th of dec, but there is still no information almost 3 weeks later. I know it's christmas, but we are supposed to have 5 weeks to make any observations, but we can't if we don't have access to any of the information yet?

Every application has used the same letter (just with the sentences rearranged), renderings etc, They have tweaked the plans slightly, but they still got invalidated citing the original one that is still with ABP, so DCC appears to see them as the same application.
It's more the hassle of having to keep submitting the same observations, even with the invalidated ones as they are usually up for a few weeks first.