Planning Circular 2/2017: Town and country planning (fees for monitoring surface coal mining sites) (Scotland) regulations 2017

Invoicing the operator

29. A fee for a site visit should only be charged after the visit has occurred and a monitoring report has been provided to the operator. The report should be provided within 10 days of the site visit, although if additional information or input is required this may not be possible so a reasonable longer period is allowed. In these circumstances the planning authority should notify the operator immediately indicating when they expect the report to be submitted. When submitting a monitoring report, it would be helpful if the planning authority highlighted the monitoring fee requirements in a covering letter.

30. An operator should aim to pay a monitoring fee within 28 days of receipt of the monitoring report.

31. In terms of non-payment it is for the planning authority to determine the best course of action but it is likely they should have already established procedures for taking action against those who default on required payments.