Pre-Application Advice
We welcome and strongly encourage discussions with homeowners or developers before submitting a planning application. This service provides you the opportunity to fully explore your proposal with us and find out what information you need to support your planning application.
Pre-application planning advice will help to reduce the number of unsuccessful applications by identifying and addressing any possible issues before submitting a full planning application. This can save yourself or your client money and time by reducing the chance of plans being rejected and further fees and costs being raised.
Currently there is no fee for making a pre-application submission.
Before we can provide any advice we need a basic level of information from you, including a plan identifying the land the subject of the application and description of your proposal. However, the more detailed information you can provide the more detailed our response will be. You should include a Design and Access Statement for larger applications and a Statement of Significance for any proposal affecting a heritage asset.
Apply for pre-application advice
We aim to respond to pre-application submissions within 4 weeks but it can often take longer. All advice given is informal officer opinion. A full planning application will involve wider scrutiny and consultation, which may show issues that were unknown before.