Legislation
Section 38 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 provides that certain documents relating to planning applications shall be made available for inspection and purchase by members of the public. Section 38 provides:
" Where a planning authority gives its decision in respect of a planning application the following documents shall be made available within three working days for inspection and purchase by members of the public during office hours at the offices of the authority:
(a) a copy of the planning application and of any particulars, evidence, environmental impact statement, other written study or further information received or obtained by the authority from the applicant in accordance with regulations under this Act;
(b) a copy of any submissions or observations in relation to the planning application which have been received by the authority;
(c) a copy of any report prepared by or for the authority in relation to the planning application;
(d) a copy of the decision of the authority in respect of the planning application and a copy of the notification of the decision given to the applicant; and
(e) a copy of any documents relating to a contribution or other matter referred to in section 34(5)."
The Act provides that the documents be made available for inspection for a period of not less than seven years. The Act also provides that the documentation listed at (a) and (b) i.e. the planning application and associated documents and submissions in relation to the application, shall be made available for inspection and purchase from as soon as may be, after they have been received by the planning authority. The Act does not prescribe fees for copying the relevant documents and the only reference in the Act to the fee to be charged for such a service is contained in section 38(4) which states:
"(4) Copies of the documents under this section shall be made available for purchase on payment of a specified fee not exceeding the reasonable cost of making such a copy."
This Report focuses in essence on the manner in which local authorities have interpreted the phrase 'reasonable cost' in determining the fees to be charged.
Inconsistency in Charges
Members of the public have continued to complain to me about the excessive fees being charged by some local authorities for copying planning documents, and in examining the complaints it became apparent that there was no consistency in the level of fees being charged by local authorities.
In my Annual Report in 2004, I gave an account of a survey carried out by my Office of 30 local authorities in order to establish the fees being charged. This survey showed that the definition of "reasonable cost" varied quite a lot from one local authority to another, with fees ranging from 10c to €1 per A4 page and some imposing minimum charges of between €1 and €3. A check with suppliers of commercial photocopying services at that time established that the charge for a copy of an A4 size document ranged from 10c to 15c per copy. The charges imposed by local authorities, when contrasted with charges for copies of records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act 1997, is also noteworthy. Regulations made by the Minister of Finance under section 47 of the Freedom of Information Act 1997 provided, at that time, for maximum charges of 4c per photocopy sheet, 51c per 3½" diskette and €10.16 per CD-ROM.
Role of the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government
In February 2004, my Office wrote to the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government (the Department) regarding the matter of the charges being levied by local authorities. It was pointed out that dealing "fairly with people" means "treating people in similar circumstances in like manner". In the matter of charges for documents on planning files, I took the view that, where appropriate, charges for similar public services across all relevant public bodies, including local authorities, should be relatively uniform. Given the lack of uniformity in relation to the charges being levied by local authorities for copies of documents on planning files, the Department was requested to carry out a review of the charges being imposed and to consider providing clearer guidelines on the calculation of charges in an effort to ensure uniformity of treatment across all local authorities.
My Office drew the Department's attention to the regulations made by the Minister for Finance under the Freedom of Information Act which specify, inter alia, that, in relation to a photocopy of material provided to a member of the public in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act 1997, an amount of £0.03p (0.4c) should be the rate charged per sheet. It was also pointed out that, as planning documents would normally be available for inspection in the planning office, the time spent on sourcing and retrieval should, in most cases, be minimal and, therefore, the inclusion of staff time for this activity in the calculation of the fees to be charged, would not appear to be reasonable.
The Department undertook its own survey of photocopying charges in planning authorities and the results showed a wide variation in charges. This prompted the Department to issue guidelines on the matter to all planning authorities in August 2005 (Circular Letter PD 4/05 Appendix A). This circular, while not prescriptive in terms of the actual charges to be applied, provides guidance in relation to the interpretation of what constitutes the 'reasonable cost' of making a copy. The Department indicated that it considered that the 'reasonable cost' of making a copy would comprise no more than the cost of the paper and the running cost of the copying machine such as toner, electricity and servicing and the cost of staff time spent in actually photocopying. In addition, the circular requested that planning authorities review their charging policy in light of the Department's advice.
Compliance with Circular Letter PD 4/05
As reported in my Annual Report for 2005, subsequent to the issuing of the Department's Circular Letter in August 2005, my Office carried out a further telephone survey of 30 local authorities in order to establish whether they had revised their charges in light of the guidelines. This survey showed that some local authorities had reduced their fees, others decided that the fees being charged by them were reasonable and made no amendments, and some appeared to be unaware of the Department's guidelines. Significant inconsistencies remained in relation to the level of charges being levied and I continued to receive complaints on the matter. Having indicated in my Annual Report for 2005 my intention to revisit the matter, I decided to do so in 2007.