Lewisham Planning

[Mayowthorpe]

Good evening,

We recently submitted plans to Lewisham Council for some renovations to our property. Its been more than 2 months, and the application has not even got to the validation stage.

I am told there is currently a huge backlog at Lewisham for planning, which might explain the difficulties for the likes of Late Knights getting their new site off the ground.

Does anyone have any recent experience with Lewisham Council for planning, including how long the process is taking at present. I have been told in one instance that it took over 6 months for a response; with the submission rejected after that time!

If anyone can shed some light on the situation, that would be greatly appreciated.

MT

[parker]

They've made a load of people redundant at Lewisham and that's probably why you are having issues with them.

[Mayowthorpe]

I gathered that, but I am looking to hear from anyone with experience or knowledge of the situation. How long is it taking, and should we expect the backlog to clear?

[Willy]

I was under the impression councils are legally obliged to give you a decision within a certain time frame, something like 12 weeks?

[Mayowthorpe]

The timeframe you refer to is 8 weeks from validation. Validation is meant to occur within the first two weeks of planning submission.

We haven't made it to validation after 2 months +.

And no response from Lewisham Council in terms of calls/messages or email.

[leenewham]

Ask a local cllr.

If any are reading this, then it would be good for them to put some pressure on.

[loigal]

I am having problems with a current application. I am also planning a bigger job and have spoken to a number of builders and architects, the feedback is that it is chaos. There was also a thread on the se23 mums Facebook page on this. The theme is that nothing is being done within the applicable statutory limitation periods (I'm currently 3 weeks over mine), outright rejections, technicality tricks to force extensions / reapplicantions and starting the clock again, inability to get through by phone (after a week of trying I let it ring for 50 minutes, a receptionist finally answered and told me to ring the planning officer, yes i've been trying for a week and their inbox is full and not accepting any emails!!), removal of pre planning query service, huge backlogs. I have been shocked by how inefficient it is and it feels like the Soviet Union must have been (sorry any patriotic Russians) a hugely inefficient bureaucracy where the 'computer says no' but all applicants want to keep on the right side of the 'power brokers'. I feel sorry for them if theyve been impacted by the cuts and are overburdened, but it needs obvious focus and investment as all the applied for planning work would surely help the locall economy? Has it always been like this or is it worse than ever now? I will be writing to my councillor.

[Mayowthorpe]

Thanks loigal; I have heard similar bad stories. Its like there is no-one at home. Its impacting the local economy, as its slowing down business development as well.

I have already contacted my local councillor. Also no response.

I wonder what would happen if we started building before we got Planning Permission. I bet they would be quick to respond!

[Search East]

This partly explains why when I rang the noise team several times and emailed them last week for advice about our neighbours building work I received no reply. I imagine all calls now go through to an answering machine in a locked room in a basement at the council buildings, good job it wasn't an urgent call.

Out of interest, I was always under the impression that building work (or other noise) was frowned upon before 8 am, I looked on the Lewisham website and couldn't find any specific times, but when I googled "noise before 8am" it returned several other council websites nationwide saying that excess noise is not allowed Monday-Saturday before 8am. What do you think?

- Search East's girlfriend.