4th August 2008, 02:59 PM
My understanding of these lists is that they are not "approved" but merely suggested points of contacts. The lists we have been accepted to make it clear that we are not being recommended by the council and they do not provide any form of guarantee to developers/clients/public of the quality or suitability of work. Many councils don't maintain a list and just direct people to the IFA RAO list and BAJR.
As far as I am aware they can not restrict work done in the County to those on the list either - there are several counties where the company I work for is not on the list and we regularly carry out work without problems.
The need to provide some additional information is probably so that the authority has some confidence that the list is relevant to its purposes. Going onto a list also normally means you agree to work to conditions/standards that the Council have outlined and the provision of information may be to confirm this has happened. It's probably a bit of a legal grey area though.
If it is any consolation I'm not sure that being on the list generates that much work - we get relatively few enquiries that have come from seeing our name on a local authority list...but one nibble may be all you need to land a client.
As far as I am aware they can not restrict work done in the County to those on the list either - there are several counties where the company I work for is not on the list and we regularly carry out work without problems.
The need to provide some additional information is probably so that the authority has some confidence that the list is relevant to its purposes. Going onto a list also normally means you agree to work to conditions/standards that the Council have outlined and the provision of information may be to confirm this has happened. It's probably a bit of a legal grey area though.
If it is any consolation I'm not sure that being on the list generates that much work - we get relatively few enquiries that have come from seeing our name on a local authority list...but one nibble may be all you need to land a client.