Minor Planning Amendments Guide

Sometimes, after a planning permission has been granted, a developer may wish to vary some aspect of the scheme. In cases where the change is significant, a fresh planning application is necessary.  But where the change is relatively minor, a planning authority may authorise it without insisting upon a fresh application.  

In April 2001, the Regulation Committee considered and approved a protocol for assessing minor amendments to planning applications and agreed that a fee should be charged for such work.  This protocol and fee was not implemented due to a fall off in the amount of minor amendments being sought.  However, the number of requests for minor amendments has increased significantly in the past year and has had clear resource implications.  The purpose of this report is to seek Members continued support for the protocol and to approve a fee for processing minor amendment applications.

The Report to the Regulation Committee (April 2001) is attached along with the Protocol For Assessing Minor Amendments.  Members should note that the £75 fee suggested in paragraph 2.7 of the 2001 report is now considered to be too high in relation to the costs to SCC of handling these amendments.  A charge of £63 would bring the fee in line with practices across the country, being half the lowest planning application fee.

Committee’s approval is sought for a leaflet to be produced, to be sent to potential applicants setting out the protocol, fee regime and examples of minor amendments that are likely to be acceptable and examples when a revised full application will be necessary.

Minor Planning Amendments Guide from a typical council