Alert over planning guidelines (From Bournemouth Echo)

Alert over planning guidelines

7:00pm Monday 6th October 2008 in

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COMMERCIAL property agents in Bournemouth could risk flouting new planning application guidelines, according to Ordnance Survey.

The national mapping agency has launched a campaign to raise awareness that land plans, which accompany all applications, must now feature mapping at defined scales from a reliable source.

If they do not, local authorities may reject them, slowing up the planning process.

Ordnance Survey's head of commercial markets, Neil Taylor, said: "If you use out-of-date mapping, you risk not giving the local planning authority the information they need to determine the application and so they could reject it, leading to frustration among clients and even claims for compensation."

Ordnance Survey's "best practice" campaign has been backed by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The new guidelines apply not only to Ordnance Survey mapping but information from other government bodies such as the Environment Agency, British Geological Survey and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

Data from all these organisations is protected under Crown Copyright.

l Visit bestpractice makesperfect.co.uk.