Planning Process – Page 2

Ownership certificates A to D and who must be told

Planning permission can be granted over land you do not own, which is why every application carries an ownership certificate. The verge you cross for the access is the usual trap.

Crown land applications and the urgent Crown route

Crown immunity from planning control ended in 2006. Crown bodies now apply like anyone else, with a separate urgent route that takes the decision to the Secretary of State.

Getting consultee responses and the officer's case file

Most consultee responses are published on the council's website as they arrive. For what is missing, the Environmental Information Regulations usually give a better route than a freedom of information request.

Planning fee exemptions and reductions worth claiming

Works to adapt a home for a disabled occupant are free, so is listed building consent, and so is one resubmission within twelve months. The conditions are where claims fail.

The planning guarantee and the fee refund at 26 weeks

Twenty-six weeks from validation, not submission. The fee refund applies whatever the reason for delay, unless the application needs environmental impact assessment or you agreed an extension.

Design review panels and what their comments are worth

Panels decide nothing and influence everything. What increases the weight of a design review report, how to run a session that helps, and how to answer a recommendation you reject.

Statutory consultees and the 21 day response duty

A statutory consultee has 21 days to give a substantive response, and the authority may determine without one. The harder problem is the holding objection that arrives on day 20.

How to search a site's planning history properly

The statutory register answers questions a survey cannot: removed permitted development rights, live unimplemented permissions and obligations that bind the land. Here is how to search it without missing half the file.

When a council refuses to validate your application

An unvalidated application does not exist and no clock is running. Separating national information requirements from local list items is the first step in any validation dispute.

Late objections: must a planning officer consider them?

The publicity period fixes the earliest date a council may decide, not the last date for a comment. What changes after it closes is procedure, and how you write matters more than the deadline.

How to get an application referred to planning committee

Most English planning applications are decided by officers under a scheme of delegation. Here is how a councillor call-in works, when the window closes and what a committee hearing can and cannot change.

Re-consultation when amended plans are submitted

Amendments during determination are normal. The limits on how far a scheme can move, and when fresh publicity is required, decide whether the permission is safe.

Site notices, neighbour letters and the 21 day period

Which applications get a site notice, which get a letter, which get a press notice, and how the 21 day representation period is actually counted.

Correcting a wrong ownership certificate mid-application

What to do when the ownership certificate on a live planning application turns out to be wrong: the statutory position, the remedy, and the effect on the determination period.

Planning Process8 min read

Conditions requiring approval of materials and samples

Approval of external materials under a condition is a consent in its own right. Here is what the condition requires, how sample panels work and what to do when a product has to change.

Publicity for applications with an environmental statement

Where an application is accompanied by an environmental statement, publicity runs for at least 30 days, consultation bodies get the same period, and any request for further information starts the process again.

Split decisions: approving part of a planning application

Split decisions are lawful in England only where the development is severable in fact. Here is how severability is judged, how conditions are used to exclude elements, and what a partial permission is worth.

When the case officer changes mid-application

The file survives a reallocation. Undocumented agreements do not. What to write down as you go, what to send a new officer, and when to escalate.

Reserved matters submitted in phases on a large site

Access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale can be approved phase by phase. The section 92 clock, parameter plans and fee per application decide how far you can split them.

Correcting an error in a planning decision notice

A council cannot simply withdraw a decision notice it has issued. Section 96A, section 73, the statutory correction power for inspectors' decisions and a fresh application each cover different errors.

Requesting information from a planning file

Most of a planning file is already public and the part you want usually is not. Which regime to use, what councils withhold, and how to frame a request that gets answered.

Unilateral undertakings against bilateral agreements

Both instruments are made under section 106 and both bind successors. The choice turns on whether the council needs to promise anything in return, and on how fast you need the deed completed.

How long a decision notice takes after a committee vote

Planning permission exists only when the decision notice is issued. On a small site with a section 106 agreement that is commonly six to twelve weeks after the vote. Here is what is happening and what you can influence.