Pre-planning advice where this formed the basis of an application

Summary

The requester sought statistics on pre-planning advice leading to applications and specific correspondence for numerous replacement dwelling cases between 2014 and 2018. The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture responded that the requested statistics are not collated and therefore not held, resulting in a partial disclosure.

Key Facts

• The request was handled under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2015.
• The authority stated it does not hold or cannot find the requested statistics on planning applications following pre-planning advice.
• The response covers the period from January 2014 to June 2018 as requested.
• The outcome was classified as 'Some information sent but not all held'.
• The request included a list of specific planning application reference numbers for replacement dwellings.

Data Disclosed

• January 2014
• June 2018
• 22nd July 2018
• 16th August 2018
• 544633
• 17/01076/B
• 14/00548/B

Exemptions Cited

• Information not held or cannot be found after taking reasonable steps

Original Request

Freedom of Information Request - Planning Pre-Application Advice Where pre-planning advice leads to a planning application, UK councils routinely publish all pre-application discussions to ensure that all decision-making is transparent. Some examples include: * Vale of White Horse. 'From 3 January 2017 we will treat information provided as part of a pre-application advice request as confidential until such time that a related full application is received. Once a full planning application is received all information relating to the pre-application request and our response will be made public.' * Devon. 'Your [pre-application advice] enquiry, together with any response made by the Council, will be made available for public inspection unless you confirm in writing to us that the information provided is commercially sensitive. If the Local Planning Authority receives a request, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) or Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), to disclose information relating to this pre-application enquiry they are obliged to do so unless the information is deemed exempt under the Act.' For the period January 2014 - June 2018, I request that Government release the following statistics: 1. How many planning applications were made following on from pre-planning advice, versus those without? 2. For the applications in (1), how many received (a) a site visit, (b) formal written advice, (c) informal advice (e.g. telephone), and/or (d) advice for which no documentation can be located? 3. For the applications in (1), in how many cases was the pre-planning advice marked as commercially-sensitive on request from (a) the applicant or (b) the Planning Office? I request that the Government release all pre-planning advice issued by the Planning Office, where this has resulted in a full application, for the period January 2017 to December 2017 (inclusive), and that this is made available online and attached to each planning application's permanent record, aside from those that have been previously marked as having commercial interest. In addition, I request that the Government release all information held (including all letters and emails) relating to pre-planning advice for the below planning applications (which were for "replacement dwellings"): 17/01076/B 17/00591/B 17/00540/B 17/00516/B 17/00454/B 17/00394/B 17/00375/B 17/00214/B 17/00155/B 17/00070/B 16/01341/B 16/01211/B 16/01183/B 16/01160/B 16/00979/B 16/00891/B 16/00886/B 16/00780/B 16/00763/B 16/00639/A 16/00597/B 16/00596/B 16/00574/A 16/00561/REM 16/00556/B 16/00469/A 16/00351/A 16/00344/B 16/00192/B 16/00062/B 16/00024/B 15/01349/B 15/01346/B 15/01219/B 15/01184/B 15/00909/B 15/00895/B 15/00730/B 15/00701/B 15/00678/A 15/00668/B 15/00663/B 15/00458/B 15/00147/B 14/01447/B 14/01336/B 14/01320/B 14/01187/B 14/01158/B 14/01157/REM 14/01156/REM 14/01094/B 14/01084/B 14/01067/B 14/01005/B 14/00909/B 14/00840/B 14/00829/B 14/00774/B 14/00756/B 14/00550/B 14/00548/B

Data Tables (3)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator Corporate Services Directorate Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John’s, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS Tel no (01624) 685854 Fax no (01624 685851 Email: defa@gov.im www.gov.im

Our ref: 544633 16th August 2018

Dear ###

This request is being handled under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2015.

We write further to your request which was received on 22nd July 2018 and which states (in italics):

"Freedom of Information Request - Planning Pre-Application Advice Where pre-planning advice leads to a planning application, UK councils routinely publish all pre- application discussions to ensure that all decision-making is transparent. Some examples include: * Vale of White Horse. 'From 3 January 2017 we will treat information provided as part of a pre- application advice request as confidential until such time that a related full application is received. Once a full planning application is received all information relating to the pre-application request and our response will be made public.' * Devon. 'Your [pre-application advice] enquiry, together with any response made by the Council, will be made available for public inspection unless you confirm in writing to us that the information provided is commercially sensitive. If the Local Planning Authority receives a request, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) or Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), to disclose information relating to this pre-application enquiry they are obliged to do so unless the information is deemed exempt under the Act.' For the period January 2014 - June 2018, I request that Government release the following statistics: Question 1. How many planning applications were made following on from pre-planning advice, versus those without? Response While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find this information. These statistics are not collated. Question 2. For the applications in (1), how many received (a) a site visit, (b) formal written advice, (c) informal advice (e.g. telephone), and/or (d) advice for which no documentation can be located? Response While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find this information. These statistics are not collated. Question 3. For the applications in (1), in how many cases was the pre-planning advice marked as commercially-sensitive on request from (a) the applicant or (b) the Planning Office? Response While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find this information. These statistics are not collated. Question. I request that the Government release all pre-planning advice issued by the Planning Office, where this has resulted in a full application, for the period January 2017 to December 2017 (inclusive), and that this is made available online and attached to each planning application's permanent record, aside from those that have been previously marked as having commercial interest. Response We have considered and responded below to the individual applications for which you requested information. If you would like anything further to happen (i.e. “… made available online …”) this is not the purpose of the FoI Act and you will need to contact Planning outside of FoI. Question. In addition, I request that the Government release all information held (including all letters and emails) relating to pre-planning advice for the below planning applications (which were for "replacement dwellings"): 17/01076/B 16/01211/B 16/00574/A 15/01219/B 14/01447/B 14/00909/B 17/00591/B 16/01183/B 16/00561/REM 15/01184/B 14/01336/B 14/00840/B 17/00540/B 16/01160/B 16/00556/B 15/00909/B 14/01320/B 14/00829/B 17/00516/B 16/00979/B 16/00469/A 15/00895/B 14/01187/B 14/00774/B 17/00454/B 16/00891/B 16/00351/A 15/00730/B 14/01158/B 14/00756/B 17/00394/B 16/00886/B 16/00344/B 15/00701/B 14/01157/REM 14/00550/B 17/00375/B 16/00780/B 16/00192/B 15/00678/A 14/01156/REM 14/00548/B 17/00214/B 16/00763/B 16/00062/B 15/00668/B 14/01094/B 17/00155/B 16/00639/A 16/00024/B 15/00663/B 14/01084/B 17/00070/B 16/00597/B 15/01349/B 15/00458/B 14/01067/B 16/01341/B 16/00596/B 15/01346/B 15/00147/B 14/01005/B Clarification On the 30th July we emailed you to ask for the request be focused on those site(s) or applications(s) which is (or are) of most interest to you. You responded on the 7th August and narrowed your request to 19 Planning Applications, 13 of which are highlighted in red above. The remaining six of those applications however were not included in the original FoI application. Although “clarification” is intended to focus effort in relation to the original request, and not to expand it, we have added those to your original request for convenience and they are included in this response. You also, as part of this clarification, requested additional information in your three final questions. The aim of clarification is to focus the initial request and cannot be used to seek information additional to the initial request. Information in relation to these questions is not included here; please feel free however, to submit these questions as a separate FoI request. Response While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. 11/00574/B Ballarhenny Farm Do not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find. (Additional to original request.) 18/00197/B Oral discussion only, no correspondence. (Additional to original request.) 17/01076/B Ballawoods Cottage Oral discussion only, no correspondence. 14/01094/B Shenvalley Farm Oral discussion only, no correspondence. 14/00548/B Ballaquine Farm Oral discussion and letter (provided) See Appendix 2 13/00116/B Kirkle Farm Oral discussion only, no correspondence. (Additional to original request.) 15/01349/B Claddagh Mill House Oral discussion only, no correspondence. 14/01067/B (comprising amendments to 07/00059/B)

Clougher House This reference was erroneously identified in your application as Upper Rhenab, for which see below. See Appendix 3 16/00351/A Ballaquiggin Farm Oral discussion only, no correspondence. 18/00593/B West View See Appendix 1 (Additional to original request.) 18/00538/B Ballawhane Farm Oral discussion only, no correspondence. (Additional to original request.) In relation to the applications below, for which you also requested information, no information is held. 17/00155/B Ballarhenny Farm 17/00540/B Ballawoods Cottage 16/00574/A Claddagh Mill House 16/00469/A Upper Rhenab 14/00909/B Ballaquiggin Farm 14/01084/B Sandygate House 14/00829/B Glenduff Farm 17/00251/B (Additional to original request.) Shenvalley #2 Further information on pre-application (pre-app) planning advice Enquires Enquiries to the planning office take the form of either a general enquiry, telephone call, letter or email and also in person by customers calling at the counter (a high proportion of cases are by oral discussion at the counter). Officers seldom offer to make a site visit before basic information is provided (see our website - https://www.gov.im/categories/planning-and-building-control/planning-applications/pre- application-advice/). This is not a measured service in terms of the non-written enquiries being monitored or recorded. Generic ‘pre app’ enquiries by email are not stored in a way that makes it possible to identify specific sites which have been the subject of pre-application discussions unless the sender used the name of the site in the email subject. This does sometimes happen however and those results are provided in this response. All staff across the Planning & Building Control Directorate may take phone calls, counter enquiries, emails or items of correspondence which can evolve into pre application advice; again these contact statistics are not recorded. Pre-application discussion can be speculative and conducted a long time before an application may eventually be submitted; indeed an application may never be submitted. Planning application forms The planning application form asks if the customer has had pre-application advice. In some of those applications on your list, they indicated they had not. This information is online in the scanned application forms. If an officer was involved in pre app discussion and this was reflected on the planning application form, and then another officer was accorded the application for assessment, the assessing officer would normally retrieve that information or discuss with the original officer what advice had been provided. If pre application detail was recorded and important to the eventual application (policy advice implications) this would also be available online and referred to in the Inspector’s Report. Whilst an applicant may note on an application form contact with an officer prior to submission of an application, a site may be subject to wider previous speculative discussion which may not be recorded in any way. Remaining planning applications and questions There remain 49 planning applications from your original request and three questions from your clarification that have not been dealt with in this response. If you still seek any of this information please submit a fresh FoI Request. Please bear in mind however that our response will be much clearer if a request is focussed and of a size that does not involve substantial compilation or collation of information. Guidance on making a request can be found using the link below and I particularly direct you to the “Writing your request” section https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/freedom-of- information/ Please quote the reference number 544633 in any future communications. Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely