Response by Dartford Borough Council

Originally we contacted to Dartford Council on 14th January 2009 about the inclusion of our photos in a planning document and asked for its removal from the planning portal until the photos could be removed from it.

 The document was immediately removed from the planning portal and the council told us that it was the applicant's responsibility to make sure that all the permissions were in place

We received no communication from the Council about its reinstatement but were informed that the document was back on the site by Dale Manson on Saturday 17th January.

We again requested the removal of the document on 21st January until the dispute between ourselves and Greenhithe Marina could be resolved over the unauthorized use of our photos.

 Dartford Borough Council stated that under section 69 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, they were required to keep a public register of planning applications. This must include a copy of the application, plans and drawings.

 This can be kept digitally and made available for inspection by the public on a website maintained by the council.  Under section 47 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, the copyright in the material is not infringed by the copying of the material by the Council where the material is open to public inspection or on an official register.

They also said that any breach of copyright is a matter between ourselves and the applicant.

This response along with a copy of what we considered to be our confidential email was sent to Greenhithe Marina.

We accept the Council's response, but find it a mockery of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 that anyone can submit a document containing eighty photos (including 6 of ours) but does not acknowledge any copyright or authorship.

Anyone viewing documents of any planning online has to accept the copyright of the application and agree to various conditions.
However it appears in the planning process that no applicant has to sign the application form that they are the copyright holder or has the permission of the copyright holder to use their material in their application.