Pre-application advice

Pre-application planning advice

We are committed to providing an efficient and effective planning service which meets government performance targets for the processing of applications.

We recognise the value of pre-application discussions for the efficient handling of subsequent applications and therefore encourage applicants, developers and their agents to engage in this process. This is particularly useful on major development proposals.

Pre-application charges

From 1 July 2012, we will introduce charges for certain types of pre-application planning advice. The charges will not apply to householder applications or small commercial developments, but will to most other developments. You can download a report about the charges from the 'Downloads' box on the right-hand side of this web page.

Pre-application advice service for major developments

We offer a formal process for requests for advice related to all developments and for major developments we take a team approach and involve all interested parties in the meeting including our own Highways and Environmental Health Teams and external bodies such as The Environment Agency. This especially applies to the following two categories:

Large Major:

• greater than 100 dwellings;    
• greater than 10,000m2 floor space;
• including change of use.

Major:

• greater than 10 dwellings and up to 99 dwellings;
• greater than 1,000m2 and up to 9,999m2 floor space;
• including change of use.

Pre-application advice for other developments

We also provide pre-application advice for applications which are not for major developments. Pre-application advice for the medium and other categories are defined below:

Medium:

• greater than 1 dwelling and up to 9 dwellings;
• greater than 75m2 and up to 999m2 floor space;
• including change of use.

Other:

• 1 new dwelling;
• less than 75m2 floor space;
• including change of use.

Householder:

• extending your home.

Requesting Advice

In the first instance you can call at our office, phone or email and where ever possible you should include the following information with your request:

• a covering letter with your name and address, describing the site location and the proposed works.
• photographs showing the area affected by the proposed works and others showing the surrounding area.
• site location map with the boundary of the application site outlined in red and the boundary of any other property controlled by the applicant outlined in blue. These can be purchased from the National Map Centre or any Ordnance Survey reseller.
• plans or other drawings. We appreciate that for 'householder' type developments the cost of providing professional drawings could be prohibitive at this stage, however without any form of drawings the advice we can provide will be limited.

Please remember that the more information you can provide about your proposal, the more accurate and in depth our feedback will be.

Disclaimer

We will make every effort to ensure that the advice given in the pre-application process is as accurate as possible. However any advice given by council officers for pre-application enquiries does not constitute a formal response or decision of the council with regards to any future planning applications and, whilst it may be a material consideration, cannot be held to bind the council in its validation or formal determination of a subsequent application.

If an application is subsequently submitted which fails to take on board advice given by officers, then the council may refuse it without further discussion with the applicant or their agent.

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