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Planning pre-application advice

Each area planning office offers a pre-application advice service to both domestic and commercial customers.

We actively encourage pre-applications discussions and negotiations as this helps ensure that your application should flow through the process more quickly. It also enables us to discuss local policies that affect you proposal and suggest changes to the scheme that may help as part of the application process.

You may find it useful to check which local plan policies or previous applications apply to your property and if your property is in a conservation area or is a listed building using our online application and mapping search systems.

The more complex the application the more pre-application advice will be required. The key customer benefits in using the pre-application service include;

• Project clarity. The advice given can help you clearly define what you can do and help steer your project in the right direction.
• The planning officer can confirm what other information etc. is required, reducing delays once the application is deposited.

If you’ve got some unanswered questions, or feel that you need to discuss your project with a planning officer, you can do one of two things. Either;

If you can’t find the time to come to the office, send a location plan and an indication of your proposals to your local office. We will aim to reply within 10 working days confirming whether you need planning permission or not. Or you can;

Contact your local office and find out when you can come in and speak to a planning officer. You can discuss your proposals with an experienced planning officer. They will be able to guide you on the requirements of the legislation and give advice on how to make your planning application proposals acceptable - or whether your proposal is unacceptable in principle .

With either process, please ensure that you include all the relevant information (plans/photographs etc.). This will greatly assist the planning officer in giving you the necessary advice.

Once we receive your information, the planning team will research the planning history for your property. This is done to check on what previous (if any) planning permissions were granted and if the work was carried out. The planning history will influence the advice given to you by the planning officer.

Last updated: 3 February 2010