Council backlog could see charity lose thousands of pounds

A charity could be forced to pay £5,000 per month from early January for a shop that they are unable to use due to a “significant” backlog of planning applications at City Hall.

St Peter’s Hospice applied for planning permission in August to put in a new shop front in a brand new store that they hope to open on Whiteladies Road.

Until planning permission is granted and the new shop front is installed, however, no renovation work can be done inside the shop that was formerly a Boots.

In September, the charity received a letter from Bristol City Council saying that there was a delay in allocating the case to a planning officer.

But they had no further updates until their local councillor encouraged them to raise their case with the mayor who has now promised to progress their application as quickly as possible.

In a question to Marvin Rees and cabinet member for finance, Craig Cheney, St Peter’s Hospice retail director John Broomhead said that he was “at a loss of what to do”

“We can’t financially afford to have this shop and not trade it as we can’t afford the rent and associated costs. As of Jan 9th it will cost us more than £5,000 per month and we are investing a significant amount of money into the set up of the store.

“Having paid for and processed the planning application we had expected some movement four months later…

“I wondered if you could give any insight into this process as we literally can’t afford to be paying £5,000 a month with no income coming into the hospice?”

The former Boots on Whiteladies Road has a broken electric door which St Peter’s Hospice need to replace – photo: Google

St Peter’s Hospice’s case was taken up by Clifton Down councillor Carla Denyer, who wrote to Rees as part of a member forum meeting to share their predicament, asking if the council has estimated the impact to the local economy of the delays in deciding on planning applications?

Rees replied that the council’s development management service “is experiencing a significant backlog of planning applications”.

He added: “I also recognise that every application that is delayed will cause issues for the individual or business involved. No detailed economic assessment of the overall impact of the delays has been carried out but we know that it frustrates growth and development.”

Rees said that the system of nationally-set planning application fees is “flawed”, and that Bristol’s service is understaffed due to budgetary constraints and unable to “deliver the level of service that it would like to”.

“In the meantime, the applicant in the case mentioned has been contacted and the application will now be progressed as quickly as possible.”

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Read more: Marvin Rees says the way Carla Denyer does politics is ‘demoralising’

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Denyer, the co-leader of the Green Party, said that Bristol City Council planning department’s delays “are so bad that they’re threatening to directly cause a valued charity to lose thousands of pounds”.

She told Bristol24/7 that she was pleased that council officers have now got in touch with St Peter’s Hospice following the questions from both her and Broomhead.

“But it shouldn’t be like this,” Denyer added. “And it’s absolutely not sustainable for individual councillors to intervene on every delayed planning decision.

“The council needs a sustainable funding settlement from government to run its services properly.”

Main photo: St Peter’s Hospice

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• Opposition leaders unite to accuse Rees of ‘rank hypocrisy’
• Bristol park groups call on council to ‘urgently fund our parks’

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