Planning applications
Planning applications divide into two types: ‘Developments’ and ‘Use’.
Any construction on land is a ‘development’, and any activity is a ‘use’. All developments (unless they fall within ‘Permitted Development’) and most commercial activities require planning permission.
The starting point is the Planning Portal: www.planningportal.co.uk Register on the Portal and you will be shown the Portal application form. Once this form is completed, the Portal will send it to your local planning authority (LPA).
The Application Form
The form presents you with a set of questions, the answers to which provide the LPA with the gist of your proposal. The online form requires you to upload three plans: a location plan (an extract from the Ordnance Survey), a block plan and an elevation plan. Finally, you pay a fee and your application will be ready to be ‘validated’ – which should not be confused with ‘approved’. All ‘validation’ means is that you have provided the LPA with the basic information and are now on square one of the Snakes & Ladders game that is the planning system.
Once your application has been validated, you will receive a planning reference numberand the decision date: the date by which the LPA will decide your application. You will receive a Planning Notice, a hard copy of which must be displayed in a prominent position on the site.
The next stage is ‘Reports’. At this stage the LPA assesses the impact of your proposal on the locality. If the LPA deem the impact is significant, it will require expert reports on any issue it thinks is relevant. For example, if your development is near a floodplain, the LPA will require a report from a flood expert. Or, if your development means a new access point to a public highway, the LPA may want a Highways expert. The LPA will contact you to request any report they require, but it is for you to commission and submit it.
The LPA is not bound to accept the report’s recommendations. The LPA may reject it or commission its own. In any case, until you supply all the requested reports, your application is on hold.
The decision date can be moved back to give you or the LPA more time. But beware: if you fail to supply a piece of information by the date the LPA has specified, your application will be struck out and you are back at square one.
Throughout this process a good planning agent should act as an intermediary between you and the LPA: anticipating the authority’s concerns, locating the correct experts and resolvingissues.