Planning Permission at £2,000 a go ?

An interesting pair of documents spewed out of the fax the other day.
They related to a development of one or possibly two houses. An agent was confriming his acceptance of a planning consultant's terms.

The planning consultant, ex-Wealden Officer Barry Goodall, had accepted the proposal that he receive an additional contingency fee (over and above the drawing and application costs) to the tune of £2,000 if one outline consent was given, and £4,000 if both were granted.

Being wet behind the ears we were fascinated by these terms, and wonder if they have been applied in a different direction, i.e. has a contingency fee ever been paid to an agent who suceeded in getting an application refused ?

If you have access to any similar documents and could send them across to our e-mail address, we would of course assure you of absolute confidentiality, or contact us by e-mail or telephone to deal with them by hand. If the same names keep popping up, particularly if a string of other agents had been unsuccessful, we might all be on to something.

Thank you.