Legislation aimed to holistically reform planning application procedures has been rolled out by the Planning Authority.

The authority said in a statement that one of the major changes in the new notice was the introduction of a new type of planning application.

This would incorporate a number of development works which did not require external consultation and others that could be easily assessed by existing planning policies.

Under the new procedure, a notice had to be affixed to a property where the proposed intervention was to be carried out and the public would be given 15 days to submit objections.

A registered objector would have the right to appeal against the decision. Such applications would be decided within 42 days.

When it came to a full development application, the period in which the public could submit objections was increased to 30 days and the established timeframe for determination was set at a maximum of 100 days from the date of validation.

The authority said that to safeguard the rights of registered objectors to submit an appeal, all planning development permissions issued would be automatically suspended for 30 days from the publication of the decision.

The new notice also introduced a ‘penalty’ on the authority when it did not honour the legal timeframe in the processing of a planning application.

An applicant would also have the right to ask for a refund of the original fees paid.

For major projects planning applications, the daily ‘penalty’ was €500, whereas for full development applications and summary procedures, the daily rate was€100 and €25 respectively, provided that the refund did not exceed 50 per cent of the Development Planning Fee.

The authority said it had also re-introduced the provision for an applicant to apply for an outline development permit.

This type of planning permission would approve, in principle, a proposed development and state the timeframe by when a full development permit must be submitted to the authority.

A number of measures to strengthen enforcement have also been issued.

The legal notice may be read in the pdf link below.