Bolton Council is to review its photocopying prices after it came under fire for charging £30 for one A4 sheet of planning document. Bolton's head of planning control, Howard Barritt, says that feedback from the public is always looked at by his department, but any future decision about how much to charge will have to be decided by planning councillors. The move comes after a Green Party worker complained when he wanted a copy of a planning application and was told it would cost him £30 plus 20p per A4 page.

As reported in the BEN yesterday Friends of the Earth have now taken up the matter and are now asking the European Commission to decide whether Bolton Council is stifling freedom of information with its charging policy.

Legally anyone can view planning documents and make their own notes from them, but until two years ago members of the public could not have the Bolton documents photocopied to take away with them.

Mr Barritt explained that they are not legally required to offer the photocopying service but decided to do so as an additional service and since then it has proved quite popular, mainly with businesses and professional organisations.

"We are not restricting the availability of planning documents," said Mr Barritt.

"This is a service which the council provides but we are not obligated to provide it."

He added that the £30 charge reflects the overheads involved which include staff time in finding the required application and storage in an easily accessible place.

This was increased from its previous £20 rate in June last year.

Exceptions are made for people who have mobility problems and cannot reach the Town Hall in person. They are loaned the documents instead but have to return them.

"We are not trying to prevent people looking at the documents," he said, adding that organisations such as building societies make similar charges for providing copies of documents.

But among neighbouring councils the BEN has discovered that Bolton makes the highest copying charges for planning documents.

Cheapest is Manchester City Council, which asks members of the public for just 55p for the first sheet copied and 20p for each subsequent sheet.

Charges elsewhere vary widely. In Bury a flat charge of £10 for each planning application is made regardless of size and there is a similar system at Wigan Council with £6.50 being charged for each planning application copy.

In Blackburn the planning department charges £3.30 for each A4 sheet of a planning application.

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