Recommendation 163

Developers told us they had experienced increased requests for ecological surveys from local planning authorities before planning applications would be validated and, in some instances, there was no clear justification for the request. 213 In one example new requests were made part way through the planning process when a new officer was assigned to an issue. 214 The Minister for Housing and Planning, acknowledged “we need to apply a more consistent approach so that we are not asking people to redo things over and over again.” 215