Disclosure Log

Question

A machine-readable extract of your planning application register, covering all applications recorded in the register from the earliest date held to the present, containing only the following fields:

- application reference number

- site address, and UPRN where held

- proposal description

- application type

- date received / date valid

- decision

- decision date

- appeal status and appeal decision, where held

- ward or community where held

- easting/northing or latitude/longitude, where held

What I am expressly not requesting. To assist you, and to remove any question arising under regulation 13, I do not seek and do not want applicant names, applicant addresses, agent names or contact details, signatures, telephone numbers, email addresses, or any third-party representations, objections, or consultation responses. If your system cannot export the fields listed above without also exporting personal data, please tell me and I will work with you on scope rather than requiring you to redact.

On burden. Article 29(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (Wales) Order 2012 requires every local planning authority to keep a register in three Parts of every application for planning permission, and article 29(12) requires that every entry in the register be made within fourteen days of the receipt of an application, or of the giving or making of the relevant direction, decision or approval. The register is therefore a maintained, current, and structured record, and what I have requested is an export of fields you already hold in that form, not a compilation exercise. Should you consider regulation 12(4)(b) engaged, I would note that the EIR contain no cost ceiling equivalent to section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, that the Commissioner's guidance states an authority 'may be required to accept a greater burden in providing environmental information than other information', that 'manifestly' requires an obvious or clear quality to the unreasonableness relied upon, and that any refusal under regulation 12(4)(b) remains subject to the public interest test with the regulation 12(2) presumption in favour of disclosure applied.

On charges. Regulation 8(2)(a) provides that no charge may be made for allowing an applicant to access public registers or lists of environmental information. Should you nonetheless propose a charge under regulation 8(1), please provide your published schedule of charges as required by regulation 8(8), and note that any charge must not exceed a reasonable amount.

Licensing. Please confirm the licence terms on which the extract is provided. I would ask you to confirm Open Government Licence v3.0 if that is your position; if it is not, please state the terms that do apply.

A question which may save us both time. If this dataset is already published by the Council as open data, whether on your own portal, on data.gov.uk, or elsewhere, please simply tell me where and I will take it from there rather than troubling you with this request. If it is not currently published but you would consider publishing it, I would be glad to hear that. I raise this as a question only, and not as an assertion of any obligation.

Answer

All information on planning applications is publicly available on the MTCBC website at the following link:

https://publicaccess.merthyr.gov.uk/online-applications/