THE WORLD of planning can be a complicated business. We are sure like us you downloaded all 4 hours and 11 minutes of a recent Thurrock Council to your I-Tunes (Oh-only us then-Ed).
As we were listening to the second item on the agenda: the application to build fifteen dwellings on the Old Chapel on North Road, South Ockendon we heard that the chair Terry Hipsey announce that the applicant was Essex Recovery Limited.
We then had a check of Companies House and it appears that a company called Essex Recovery Limited of the address was dissolved in August.
We thought that the controversy would be over the removal of the hundreds of graves on the site. So we spoke to Thurrock Council, who put us right.
A spokesperson said: “Planning permission is not granted to an individual – it goes with the land. The application was rightfully considered on its planning merits, as opposed to a being determined on who owns the site and their standing”.
There, so that query was answered quicker than you can say Ichabod Crane.
Let me get this straight, the council are saying that it does not matter who or what applies for planning permission?
Should an application be entered by Mickey Mouse of Disneyland Paris for a site in Thurrock then no checks would be undertaken as to their validity? I find this hard to accept as why grant planning permission to a party who have no way to complete the build?
Not just Thurrock
Anyone can apply, ****pay the fee**** and if passed, get planning for a development on any land. The permission is granted to the land not the applicant.
You can apply to build a McDonalds at 10 Downing St, and if successful, that’s the all you get. It does not give the right to own the land, demolish the existing property etc.
And once they have planning permission the value of the land shoots up.