Get advice on your planning application

The Council has revised its fees and charges around pre-application advice. As a result all site specific enquiries and many other types of enquiries will now require a fee before advice is able to be given.

You will still be able to self-serve using the Council’s website for information and residents are advised to view the guidance that is available on the planning portal at https://www.planningportal.co.uk/

The process and how to apply

Please download the pre-app form available here. This updated form should give your agents clarity as to what information is required when making an enquiry to the Council. It should be noted that when making an enquiry the more information given, the better able the Council’s planning team will be to assist you.

When you are ready to make your submission please email the form and any supporting documentation to [email protected] who will review the request, assess the fee against the fees and charges chart and will contact you to inform you as to how you may make payment. Please note that no work will commence on your enquiry until the relevant fee has been paid.

Freedom of information statement

We may get Freedom of Information or Environmental Information Regulations requests about pre-application advice that we have provided.

Under Environmental Information Regulations Section 12 (5) (f) pre-application advice will not be provided in response to requests unless explicit consent has been provided to enable disclosure.

Explicit consent means that the pre-application applicant must have actively consented to the future disclosure of the information provided.

In using this exemption the Local Authority will be required to carry out a Public Interest Test and, in some circumstances, the lack of explicit consent may be over ridden if the Public Interest Test shows that the Public Interest in disclosing the pre-application advice outweighs the interests in withholding it.

In cases where the Public Interest Test leads to full or partial disclosure personal data will still be protected by the Data Protection Act.

Information Commissioner’s Officer guidance on EIR Section 12 (5) (f) can be found at https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1638/eir_voluntary_supply_of_information_regulation.pdf

Get advice on your planning application