Council "planning development levies" for water is €3,500: own well, must I pay?

hi all,

we have our bill for council planning charges for the crazy sum of €7500 which includes almost 3500 for water charges for connecting to the public mains. we were planning on boring for our own well, not only because it's cheaper (1900), but because we wanted our own water supply and well.

when we went into our local planning dept to pay the bill (minus the water charge) we were told that we had to pay this charge, even if we didn't use the public water and if we were boring our own well.

this seems really ridiculous to us. we thought we should have the choice of having our own well as we are living in the countryside, have plenty of space to have a pump house etc, would be confident in our water supply and not have to worry about future water charges etc.

it seems to us to be another power trip of the local county council and another way of making money from us, we are giving them 2500 for roads (you should see the roads!!), and 1500 for community (we live 2 miles from the nearest village)

is there any way out of paying this water charge so that we can put in our own well???? any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Re: council water charges????

*rose said:

we were planning on boring for our own well, not only because it's cheaper (1900)

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In my experience boring a well, installing a pump and filters costs in the region of €5k-€6k at present. There can be ongoing electricity, pump maintenance and filter consumable costs as well. There are also costs associated with testing the water from the well on an annual basis.

I know of some people who have successfully claimed back the water element of the planning levy when they joined the local group scheme. I not sure if this can be done in every local authority.

Re: council water charges?

3.5k seems a lot for the water ? we paid 680 euros to the council and then 900 euros to a guy who does most of the work for the council because he is insured and so on to dig on public roads and everyone uses this same guy. he brought the mains water across the road, fit the meter and saddle and left a pipe just inside our boundary so we could run a pipe up to the back of the house. we then bought the appropriate pipe and connectors for about 150 (200 foot of pipe) and ran the pipe up to the back of the house so we have water for the blocklayers.

if you are certain that the council has broken the levy down into specifically €3500 for a connection to public water and your conditions of planning state that you are connecting to a new bored well then you DO NOT have to pay this....

challange them with it in writing, stating specifically that you are not connecting to a public water supply....

however, make sure they are not charging you for 'water drainage' in which they could charge you for on site soakaways....

Re: Council "planning development levies" for water is €3,500: own well, must I pay?

I would presume you don't have to pay, but it seems to me it depends who you get talking to in council.
We are in similar position, we paid i think just over €2k for water fees as one of the planning conditions. But the mains is not outside our gateway. Its about 1/4 to 1/2 mile over the road. We have to pay a contractor to bring the mains to our gate on top of the 2k already paid. Person we spoke to in the council said the contractor charges approx €40 per metre... so that is a no go. We will have to go for a well. Person we spoke to said we should get our money back that we have paid.
With talk that everyone will have to pay water rates soon enough, a well should work out cheaper..

Re: Council "planning development levies" for water is €3,500: own well, must I pay?

Bottom line in this is that you pay contributions towards services that you propose to use. First of all check that a connection to the water mains wasn't shown on your planning maps.

Then go to the council and ask them to show you a copy of their development contribution scheme and to point out where it states that you must pay money for something that you don't intend to make use of.

I doubt very much if you will have to pay this part of the contributions.

Re: Council "planning development levies" for water is €3,500: own well, must I pay?

no, you shouldn't have to pay this. contribution charge is usually broken down into 4 categories: roads, parks, water etc. my LA did the same with me even though it stated in my application i was supplying my own water and waste treatment. a strong worded written letter saved me €4k in the end. now i only have to pay a rip-off total of €15k.

Re: Council "planning development levies" for water is €3,500: own well, must I pay?

I'd be very interested in the outcome of this rose if you wouldnt mind letting me know.


Did your planning application provide for a public water connection or a private well?

Have you contacted the ombudsman to intervene on your behalf?

Re: Council "planning development levies" for water is €3,500: own well, must I pay?

They can compel you to connect to the mains supply. In any case, a lot of wells are polluted and you are probably safer using a public supply. I would prefer to be connected to the mains and I say this as an informed person!

Re: Council "planning development levies" for water is €3,500: own well, must I pay?

honoria said:

They can compel you to connect to the mains supply. In any case, a lot of wells are polluted and you are probably safer using a public supply. I would prefer to be connected to the mains and I say this as an informed person!

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For someone who is "informed" you don't seem to understand that nobody can make you connect to a public water supply. You are away off the mark with that comment

Re: Council "planning development levies" for water is €3,500: own well, must I pay?

honoria said:

They can compel you to connect to the mains supply. In any case, a lot of wells are polluted and you are probably safer using a public supply. I would prefer to be connected to the mains and I say this as an informed person!

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They can only compel you if your well fails to meet the EU water standards. Unfortunately, you have to dig your well and pump it for at least a week to get good water. Then you get the public health labratories out to do a water test (€90 in Offaly) and if you pass that, you can get your money back from the water contribution or not pay it if you haven't already. It depends on which way around your council wants to do it.

In Offaly, we had to dig the well before planning and include the well test results with the planning application. Our well man assured us he had been pumping the well, but the water from the well failed spectacularly so we had to stump up for the water services charge. We also applied for a connection to the mains to the council water services department. As there was no sign of the water services department, we set up the well and a treatment system and ran it into a ditch for a week. Lo and behold, beautiful fresh water. The story ends with the bypass that is being built nearby. The roads people have to test the water of houses within a certain distance. They gave us a nice clean water test, so a year and a half after moving in (three years after paying the water services charge) we got our money back!

The mains water on this side of Tullamore is the mankiest muck-filled over-chlorinated rubbish I've ever drunk in my life. I wouldn't give it to the dog (he wouldn't drink it anyway, much prefers bog water!).

*rose said:

hi all,

we have our bill for council planning charges for the crazy sum of €7500 which includes almost 3500 for water charges for connecting to the public mains. we were planning on boring for our own well, not only because it's cheaper (1900), but because we wanted our own water supply and well.

when we went into our local planning dept to pay the bill (minus the water charge) we were told that we had to pay this charge, even if we didn't use the public water and if we were boring our own well.

this seems really ridiculous to us. we thought we should have the choice of having our own well as we are living in the countryside, have plenty of space to have a pump house etc, would be confident in our water supply and not have to worry about future water charges etc.

it seems to us to be another power trip of the local county council and another way of making money from us, we are giving them 2500 for roads (you should see the roads!!), and 1500 for community (we live 2 miles from the nearest village)

is there any way out of paying this water charge so that we can put in our own well???? any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Click to expand...

Hey,

Yea, we did this recently, bout two months ago in Cavan.
What we did was get a quote on a well and a quote on the mains water. The well was €2k and the mains was around €3k. So we got the well.

However, I think you are saying that the mains was already put into the house and they are passing the charge onto you for the laying of the pipes, etc. It is obviosly wrong for them to force you to pay it when you didn't ask for it, but I don't know what the law says.

God and all of us know that there's enough laws thet make us do unfair things, etc !

As for a well. Ours is grand anyway, just get the water tested from 2/3 weeks after it's drilled or so and you'll be good to go with that. Plus if you do use the mains, it's a great back up for all the times you are gonna have the mains temp. cut off for maintenance !

Lao.