A new process for consents in conservation areas
You may be aware that earlier this month Planning Minister Nick Boles announced a number of Statutory Instruments designed to make planning practice swifter and simpler. These were highlighted in a Portal news article.
New secondary legislation will complete the removal of the requirement for obtaining Conservation Area Consent when demolishing unlisted buildings in conservation areas, and from 1 October 2013 make these proposals subject to planning permission instead.
To facilitate this change on the Planning Portal we have needed to make minor amendments to existing application forms that included conservation area consent to ensure they reflect planning legislation only.
We shall be writing to all applicants with a conservation area consent application in draft advising them to check the certificate details of their application as this will now contain reference to the agricultural land declaration and be subject to planning permission.
The changes apply in England only and full details are provided here.
Planning Portal Blog 
And this is to make planning “swifter and simpler”? Surely the main consequence, besides probably doing the exact opposite, is that it allows LPAs to collect a nice fee for it. Kerr-ching!
Second Simon Evans comment.
if you read the link you will see there is no fee payable
It is actually one of the few changes to the planning system, of the many made by this government ,that WILL reduce red tape and cost, as you will now be able to submit for demoltion AND planning permission in one application, instead of the previous need for a planning application which involved demolition also needing a seperate appliaction for CAC. Its a first!
Ok, here is one for you all to munch on.
As it is now you can apply for demolition with a conservation area application and a full application for your scheme.
Planning permission is refused for the proposed scheme, one of the the reasons being that the existing building makes a positive contribution to the conservation area but ironically the conservation area permission is approved to demolish the building.
That has happened on one of our projects and gave good grounds for an appeal to be upheld.
That’s Local Authority Planning Departments for you !