Cllr Ronan McManus

ronan mcmanus » news

“€5 COUNCIL PHOTOCOPY CHARGE A RIP-OFF”.

Issued : Wednesday 15 July, 2009

Labour Councillor Ronan McManus has welcomed the report by the Ombudsman which highlights the unjustifiably heavy charges that local authorities levy for photocopies of planning documents.

It is clear from the Ombudsman’s report that some local authorities are ripping off people by charging €5.00 for one copy of an A4 page which is excessive to say the least when you compare this charge to what you would pay in an office supplies company.

Concerned members of local communities should be encouraged to engage with the planning process, and barriers should be removed wherever possible. This €5.00 charge, as the Ombudsman has said, is most certainly an obstacle to a properly functioning planning process.

The information that is contained in a planning file is, by its very nature, information that is of crucial importance to the public in general, and local communities in particular. The notion that a member of the public who is going to the trouble of informing themselves about planning and development in their area should be charged an arm and a leg for the privilege, is an affront to local democracy, transparency and civic involvement.

Local authorities do not own this information. They are simply the agent that acts, on behalf of the public, in processing and storing it. It is the public that owns the information and the public should not be required to pay for something that is already theirs.

If it is true, and I have my doubts, that charges levied by local authorities reflect the actual cost of producing a photocopy, then there is something seriously wrong with the way some of our Councils are run.  I know that the local authorities in Co. Wicklow are very pro-active in making all planning documents available online but we have to understand that not everyone has access to the internet.