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Pre-Application Advice Service
- Advice before you submit an application
- Pre-application advice service for householders
- Pre-application advice service for residential developers
- Pre-application advice service for developers of commercial space
- Additional pre-application advice
- Refund Policy
- Disclosing information on pre-application discussions
- Other sources of Planning advice
Advice before you submit an application
Our Planning Service is keen to help to make the Planning Process as simple for you as possible. Our website has been designed to provide customers with a range of information about common projects, maps that show if your site falls into a conservation area, or is affected by other issues.
If this information does not provide you with adequate guidance for your specific project, you might find it helpful to use our pre-application advice service, which can help householders making alterations to their homes, or developers of housing and developers for commercial/employment sites. We can provide you with an appointment within 10 working days of you requesting a meeting. After your meeting with our officers, our service will provide you with written advice for meetings within 20 working days (increased from 10 for planning advice due to current workloads). To find out more about our service, or book an appointment, please see the information provided below.
Pre-application advice service for householders
We provide the following services for householders:
Service | Current Cost |
|---|---|
Building Control Pre Application advice service on site | £100 |
Building Control Pre Application advice service | Free |
| Planning advice for householders Our Householder advice service can offer:
You can make an appointment for this service via the pre-application advice request form. There is no free drop-in planning advice service. | £320 (VAT inclusive) |
| Householder with basement | £951.20 (VAT inclusive) |
| Householder Delivery Contract Our Householder delivery contract is designed for complex proposals which might require more advice and research than the standard householder advice service can offer. The service would offer more comprehensive background research, face to face meeting and written record of the advice | Bespoke Price |
| Out of Office visits If you wish for us to deliver the advice service at the site in question, Planning officers will be able to arrange this for an additional charge of £170.40. | £490.40 (VAT inclusive) |
Before attending their meeting, customers should provide a site plan for the property in question. Site plans are available to purchase from the Planning Portal website (external link) and are crucial in helping us to identify your property. Simply mark a red line around your property, including around individual buildings, and any additional ‘curtilage’ spaces like gardens. Customers who do book pre-application advice meetings will be asked to attach a site plan when booking, or email it to the Planning service ahead of the meeting.
In addition, if you have drawn up any plans you wish to show us, or have photos or rough sketches for your proposal, it will be helpful to attach these items. We will however be able to provide advice without this information.
If you wish to book a pre-application advice service meeting, please fill in our online form with details about your proposal and an email address and phone number so we can contact you:
Request for pre-application advice
Pre-application advice service for residential developers
If you are planning on building new homes, or converting your property into flats, our pre-application advice service can help you. The pre-application advice service offers:
- Background research from planning officers about your site and proposals, including specialist advice from conservation officers, design officers, and special advice on the Community Infrastructure Levy and our Affordable Housing Liability policies
- Meetings with the relevant specialist officers present
- Written advice and feedback
| Service | Current Cost |
|---|---|
| Minors, 1-5 new residential units (including converting a house to flats) | £1,405.20 (VAT inclusive) |
| Minors, 6-9 residential units | £2,094.60 (VAT inclusive) |
| Basement advice fee for a minor application | £631.20 (VAT inclusive) plus above fee |
| Majors, 10-24 residential units | £5,466.60 (VAT inclusive) |
| Majors, 25-50 residential units | £7,581.60 (VAT inclusive) |
| Majors, 51-100 residential units | £7,581.60 (VAT inclusive) |
| Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) | Bespoke price |
Before attending their meeting, customers must provide the following:
- 1:1250 site location plan
- Drawings of the proposal
- Photographs of the site and surroundings
- Draft Design and Access statement
- Any other relevant attachments.
All of these attachments can be added through the webform below.
If you wish to book a pre-application advice service meeting, please fill in our online form with details about your proposal and an email address and phone number so we can contact you:
Request for pre-application advice
Pre-application advice service for developers of commercial spaces
If you are planning on building new employment spaces, our pre-application advice service can help you. The pre-application advice service offers:
- Background research from planning officers about your site and proposals, including specialist advice from conservation officers, design officers, and special advice on the Community Infrastructure Levy .
- Meetings with the relevant specialist officers present.
- Written advice and feedback.
| Service | Current Cost |
|---|---|
| Minor commercial applications up to 499 sqm | £1,405.20 (VAT inclusive) |
| Minors (Category 4) 500-999sqm commercial floorspace | £2,094.60 (VAT inclusive) |
| Majors (Category 3) 1000-1999sqm commercial floorspace | £5,466.60 (VAT inclusive) |
| Majors (Category 2) 2000-9999sqm commercial floorspace | £7,581.60 (VAT inclusive) |
| Majors (Category 1) 10,000 or more commercial floorspace | £7,581.60 (VAT inclusive) |
| Drainage meeting for a major | £1,236 (VAT inclusive) |
| Energy meeting for a major | £1,236 (VAT inclusive) |
| Air quality meeting for a major | £1,236 (VAT inclusive) |
| Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) | £7,581 initial meeting (VAT inclusive) Bespoke price after first meeting |
Before attending their meeting, customers must provide the following:
- 1:1250 site location plan
- Drawings of the proposal
- Photographs of site and surroundings
- Draft Design and Access Statement
- Any other relevant attachments.
All of these attachments can be added through the webform below.
If you wish to book a pre-application advice service meeting, please fill in our online form with details about your proposal and an email address and phone number so we can contact you:
Request for pre-application advice
Additional pre-application advice
Some of our customers may find that the breadth of issues that arise as a result of their proposal cannot be covered in the pre-application advice meeting. For developers who would like to iteratively develop their proposals and evolve their designs based on feedback, we offer a number of additional services.
| Service | Current Cost |
|---|---|
| Planning Performance Agreements (PPAs) Our PPA service can offer a bespoke service which can provide specialist support and expertise relevant to your proposal. The cost of the service is calculated on the basis of hourly rates of the officers and experts who provide the advice | Bespoke |
| Transportation assessments For complex projects which require additional transport scoping assessments as part of a technical working group. | £72 per hour of work (VAT inclusive) (Total £72 per hour) |
| Quality Review Panel, Formal review For clients seeking feedback from a range of design experts about their proposal. Please note that this service is not available unless the client attends a pre-application advice meeting first. | £5,400 (VAT inclusive) including room hire |
| Quality Review Panel, Chairs review For clients seeking feedback from the Chair of the Quality Review Panel for design advice on their proposal. Please note that this service is not available unless the client attends a pre-application advice meeting first | £2,400 (VAT inclusive) including room hire |
| Surgery Review | £1,440 (VAT inclusive) |
| Senior Manager Time For clients seeking support and advice from the Head of Development Management, Dean Hermitage. Please note this is subject to availability and at our discretion, and usually only suitable for 'major' proposals for residential developments and commercial spaces | £144 per hour (VAT inclusive) |
| Assistant Director Time For clients seeking additional advice and support from the Assistant Director for Planning, Emma Williamson. Please note this is subject to availability and at our discretion, and usually only suitable for 'major' proposals for residential developments and commercial spaces | £200 per hour (VAT inclusive) |
If you wish to book a pre-application advice service meeting, please fill in our online form with details about your proposal and an email address and phone number so we can contact you:
Request for pre-application advice
Refund Policy
Please note, if a customer cancels a meeting, it is likely that a major portion of the fee will not be refunded, due to the need to cover the costs of carrying out background research and other preparatory work ahead of the meeting. However, we will try to accommodate requests to rearrange the meeting.
If the meeting is cancelled by the Planning service, an alternative time for the meeting will be offered. If the alternative is not acceptable to the customer, the fee will be refunded in full.
Disclosing information on pre-application discussions
The council does not automatically publicise details of pre-application discussions with potential developers until a planning application has been submitted. At application stage the pre-application report will be placed on the case file on the website.
Any applicant that wants to withhold the pre-application report from publication will need to provide justification taking account of the fact that under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 the council is obliged to release information in the public interest unless exemptions apply. The exemptions only relate to commercially sensitive and confidential information. It is therefore important that you bring to the council's attention at the outset in writing, any information which you consider may, if disclosed, prejudice your commercial interests or which you consider would breach confidentiality. You should also set out the reasons why and for what period you consider the information falls into these categories. It is then for the council to decide whether it believes the information falls into these exempt categories.
It is also possible that the council will receive requests for disclosure of pre-application advice reports prior to submission of an application and these will be dealt with on a case by case basis. As set out above disclosure will only be withheld if exemptions, such as commercially sensitive or confidential information, apply. We may also treat as exempt from disclosure information which, if disclosed, may prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. This can be particularly relevant at the outset of major applications where a lot of exploratory discussion takes place. If the disclosure of this exploratory information was likely to prejudice the process of leading to a proper determination of the subsequent planning application, then it may not be disclosed.
Apart from these exemptions any other recorded information resulting from these pre-application discussions is very likely to be disclosed if requested.
Other sources of Planning advice
If you are not sure that the Pre-Application advice service is the right service for you, you can find a range of information and advice about common proposals, from our Advice for Common Projects section.
Alternatively, you can seek planning advice from a range of other providers, such as local architects, or Planning Aid (external link).
The Environment Agency can provide pre-application advice on matters such as flood risk details are set out in their advice note (PDF, 354KB).
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