Planning maps rip off?

[loply]

Anybody else think the situation with planning maps is a bit of a rip off?

Councils insisting on having a map which you've bought, specifically disallowing any type of map which could be had for free, then making a list of 'approved suppliers' who they link you to...

Most seem to be wanting about £30 to let you have a snapshot of a map which was assembled using public money in the first place.

 

[jeds]

I draw my own for most of my applications. No local authority has ever refused one of mine.

 

[tony1851]

What some people do is look up planning applications for nearby houses on their street, on the council's planning website.
On the list of documents for each application, there willl be one entitiled 'location plan'.
These scoundrels then print the plan out. They then tippex out the red line around the application site, and draw a red line arond their own property. The site address is cut off, and they re-print it with their own address.
Isn't that dreadful; some people have all the nerve!

 

[cjard]

Can't say the LA cared that I used the location plan out of my deeds.. but then, I'm sure the mapping co i used on another project only charged £6 for a map. It's a drop in the ocean of what you'll spend on your prject, and tbh if youre feeding input into the planning robots, feeding in input theyre used to processing will make your application go easier. For the sake of a few quid, you don't want to get into a round-the-houses with them over where your site is. You'll spend longer sorting out the confusion than you would working for maccy d's to earn the money to buy the map..

 

[tony1851]

Can't say the LA cared that I used the location plan out of my deeds.. but then, I'm sure the mapping co i used on another project only charged £6 for a map. It's a drop in the ocean of what you'll spend on your prject, and tbh if youre feeding input into the planning robots, feeding in input theyre used to processing will make your application go easier. For the sake of a few quid, you don't want to get into a round-the-houses with them over where your site is. You'll spend longer sorting out the confusion than you would working for maccy d's to earn the money to buy the map..

Agree with that but it might make a difference if you do several applications
per month

 

[jeds]

I use digital maps which tend to be about £20 each. I've drawn at least 10 so far this year and downloaded a couple that were too large. They take me about 5 or 10 minutes to do so I've probably saved about two hundred quid for about an hour or two.

 

[DevilDamo]

Can't say I've ever had an issue, nor have my clients. It's something that has to be bought... legally. If you don't have it, you can't seek Planning approval.

And to be honest... in the grand scheme of things, is £30 really a lot of money? Take a single storey extension for example... OS map (£30), Planning application (£172), Building Regulation application (£425).

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Anybody else think the situation with planning maps is a bit of a rip off.

 

[loply]

Can't say I've ever had an issue, nor have my clients. It's something that has to be bought... legally. If you don't have it, you can't seek Planning approval.

And to be honest... in the grand scheme of things, is £30 really a lot of money? Take a single storey extension for example... OS map (£30), Planning application (£172), Building Regulation application (£425).

Not really the point though is it?

We, the tax payer, paid to assemble those maps.

Now we're having to buy them back from some random company in order to build a garden wall?

I understand the council needing to have a map of the site but why can't they just put a free map on their website (like Google Maps) you navigate to the plot and click on the right spot!? For a start they would then have the GPS coordinates which is surely useful.

 

[garyo]

+1 to looking at your local authorities website for a nearby application and re-using that

 

[DevilDamo]

I agree that it's just another way of the tax payer having to pay more money. But the same logic applies to a lot of things.

 

[luisdesign]

Actually, you can get mapping OS Open Data free direct from ordnance survey But they don't usually cover the finer mapping detail required for planning. But they aren't really very useful for anything other than a simple lcoation plan (if that). I'm happy to pay the £20 odd to Promap or UKMap Centre in order to get a CAD file that is layered, vector based and ready to use for location, site and block plans etc. at varying scales.

I know that purchasing the map saves me time (and therefore money) in the long run, but I have come across architects that will charge this out at double the purchase cost, which is absurd.

 

[cadtech]

Tony 1851 way to go I do it all the time. Not that I am condoning braking copyright laws. We used to be able to go to the council offices and copy them for nothing. Somebody found out that the queen owned copyright, then realised this was a cash cow and the royals needed the fjavascript:emoticon('')unds

 

[ban-all-sheds]

fjavascript:emoticon('')unds

Care to rephrase that?

 

[mandm65]

Anybody else think the situation with planning maps is a bit of a rip off.