LIMIT OF DURATION OF PLANNING PERMISSIONS PAST AND FUTURE (Hansard, 23 October 1968)

§ Mr. Skeffington
I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

§ Mr. Speaker
I suggest that with this Amendment we take Lords Amendments Nos. 103 and 104.

§ Mr. Skeffington
At present, subsection (2) seeks to deal with the case where permission is granted in the future without any time-limit condition by the use of the words . … and if not granted shall be deemed to be granted, … However, this leaves the meaning a trifle obscure and ambiguous. Amendment No. 103 puts the matter right.

§ Mr. Graham Page
On Amendment No. 104, the five-year limit of planning permission is still very objectionable to us. It is most regrettable that when the Minister had an opportunity of making an Amendment there seems to be no provision for applying for an extension of the five years once the condition of five years has been stated, or implied. We are dealing with the case where the five-year condition has not been stated in the planning permission and is therefore implied in it.
I should have hoped that the opportunity would be taken in the Amendment to insert a provision that an extension could be made during that five years if both sides know that the development will not start within that period, but have no complaint about that. The five years can be altered before one starts, in the first conditions of the planning permission, but apparently nothing can be done to extend it during the five years. A new application must be put in and the thing started all over again.