HER Searches - In Person?

[kevin wooldridge]

As the HER records are held (normally) by local authorities and the DBAs are prepared for LA planning committees why don't we have a system where the assessment is written by an employee of the LA. Surely it is just the same as the planning authority commissioning a technical report from one of its other advisors. That is the system we have in Norway and it works fine (in fact it works right the way up to the initial field evaluation if required). The national heritage board acts as arbiter if there is any question of bias....but anyway why do we let the 'polluter' commission their own mitigation report? That seems guaranteed to ensure bias...Costs could be recovered if and when developer submits an application.