A Guide to the Planning Service
It does this by developing Planning Policy for the District and implementing it through the Development Management service which deals with the processing of planning and other similar applications.
The Council typically deals with 2,500 applications per year and the majority of these are decided by planning officers under delegated powers granted to them by the Development Management Committee. Larger or more complex applications are generally considered by the committee itself which meets approximately every 4 weeks.
To comment, object or support and existing planning applications, please see our Object, Comment or View a Planning Application or Decision page.
The Council has introduced a scheme so members of the public can now speak at Development Management committee meetings. Anyone can speak at a meeting so long as they've already written to the council about the application when it was first proposed, and they have registered to speak before the meeting. You can ask someone to speak on your behalf if you prefer.
For more information, including how to register to speak please see our Public Speaking at Development Management Meetings page.
Planning advice
You can use the Planning Portal to determine whether you need planning permission, and also for general planning advice.
For general guidance on planning matters, you can book a call back from a duty planning officer. Please note that the duty officer cannot comment on the acceptability of specific development proposals. For development proposals at the pre-application stage you should use the Pre-application Service.
If you wish to proceed straight to a planning application there are a number of Planning Forms available on the Planning Portal or to download.
Amending an existing application and agreeing an Extension of Time
It is sometime necessary to change applications once they have been submitted but this can add lengthy delays, so it is important to use the Pre-application Service to discuss proposals before making applications.
We have published a protocol as guidance on when we will accept amendments to applications in order to be transparent and fair in how we handle applications. Where amendments are needed to make an application acceptable and an application can still be determined within the statutory timescales they will normally be accepted, following discussion with the case officer. More extensive negotiations, such as those which require re-notification or re-consultation will generally only be sought where a pre-application enquiry was previously made. Please do not submit amendments or additional information without previously agreeing this with the case officer as it may result in you incurring a cost and we reserve the right to not consider them.
Where it is likely that applications will not get determined by the statutory application deadline, we may seek to agree an Extension of Time agreement with you. However, we do not want to do this frequently as we want to try and determine the vast majority of applications within deadlines so as to provide a fast and responsive application service. The protocol sets out when we are likely to seek Extensions of Time.
