Commenting on a prior approval application

A prior approval application is not a planning application, and the difference decides what a comment can usefully say. The development has already been permitted in principle by the General Permitted Development Order 2015. What the council is deciding is whether a short list of specified matters is acceptable. Write about anything outside that list and the officer must disregard it, however reasonable the point.

So the useful comment is narrow and evidenced. A neighbour who writes 400 words about the principle of an extra storey has spent their one opportunity on ground the council cannot consider. A neighbour who writes six sentences about the loss of afternoon light to a kitchen window, with a measurement and a photograph, has given the officer something to weigh.

Why prior approval is not a planning application

Permitted development rights grant permission through the Order itself. Where a class requires prior approval, the right is conditional on the developer obtaining the council's approval of particular details before starting.

The consequence is that the council has no discretion over whether the development happens. If the proposal fits the class and the specified matters are acceptable, approval follows. Refusal has to rest on one of the listed matters, or on the proposal failing to meet the conditions of the class in the first place.

That second route is worth knowing. If the scheme exceeds a dimension in the class, or the building is in a conservation area where the class does not apply, the proposal is outside permitted development altogether. Pointing that out is legitimate and often more effective than an amenity argument.

The limited matters the council may consider

The list differs by class. Some examples of what the council assesses:

Read the class wording rather than the council's covering letter, because the letter sometimes paraphrases the list loosely. And note what is absent. Most of these lists say nothing about loss of a view, effect on property values, or the general character of the street.

Which classes allow neighbour comment

For a larger rear extension to a house, the Order builds in a neighbour consultation step: the council notifies adjoining owners and occupiers, who have 21 days to object, and the council then considers the effect on the amenity of all adjoining premises if any objection is received.

Other classes have no equivalent built-in consultation, but the application still appears on the council's online planning register, and councils generally accept and take into account representations that go to the specified matters. Where the class involves external appearance or amenity, a comment is more likely to carry weight than where the only matters are technical.

The practical step is to check the register weekly if you know something is coming, because the periods are short and there is no obligation to tell you about every class. Our note on objecting to a larger home extension covers that particular procedure in more detail.

Comments that fall outside the listed matters

These come up in almost every case, and none of them helps:

• Loss of a view, which is not a planning consideration in itself
• Effect on the value of your property
• Competition with an existing business
• Private rights such as covenants, boundary positions or rights of light, which are civil matters
• Disputes about who owns a wall or fence
• The principle of the development, where the class permits it
• Construction noise and disruption, unless the class requires a construction management report

Some of these do have a proper home, just not here. Rights of light are a civil law question separate from planning. Construction nuisance is a matter for environmental health once work starts. Our note on loss of privacy objections and the evidence that works sets out how to turn a general worry about overlooking into something an officer can assess.

The determination period and the risk of default approval

This is the part neighbours most often miss. Prior approval classes carry a fixed period for the council to decide, commonly 42 days for a larger house extension and 56 days for several of the change of use classes. If the council does not notify its decision within that period, the developer may in many cases proceed as though approval had been given.

Two things follow. Comments have to arrive early, because the officer needs time to consider them within a short window. And a council that misses the deadline hands the developer the outcome without anyone assessing the merits.

If the period is close to expiring and you have not seen a decision, ask the case officer directly where the application stands. That question is sometimes what prompts the decision to be issued.

What the council can attach as conditions

Where a class allows it, the council may grant prior approval subject to conditions reasonably related to the subject matter of the approval. So a condition about the colour and texture of external materials, obscure glazing to a flank window, or the retention of a boundary hedge is possible where appearance or amenity is one of the listed matters.

What a condition cannot do is control something outside the specified matters. Asking for restricted working hours on a class where construction impacts are not a listed matter will not succeed, however sensible it would be.

If you can identify a condition that would resolve your concern, say so and propose the wording. Officers under time pressure often adopt a suggested condition that is precise and enforceable.

Where to direct concerns that fall outside

Keep a second list of the things that belong elsewhere, and pursue them in parallel rather than losing them in a planning comment.

1. Statutory nuisance from noise, dust or odour once work begins goes to environmental health.
2. Structural safety, party walls and scaffolding over your land are matters for building control, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 and your own surveyor.
3. Work to a tree with a preservation order, or any tree in a conservation area, needs separate consent or notice, whatever the prior approval says.
4. Highway obstruction and skips on the road are for the highway authority.
5. Development that turns out to exceed the class is a potential breach of planning control, which our note on reporting a breach to the council explains.

One further point about outcomes. If prior approval is granted, third parties have no right of appeal against it, for the same reasons set out in our note on why neighbours cannot appeal an approval. The only challenge to a grant is judicial review of the process, which is expensive and rarely proportionate.

As an illustrative example, a neighbour facing a 6 metre rear extension under the larger home extension procedure writes within the 21 day period, states the room affected, gives the distance from the boundary and the orientation, attaches two photographs taken at 4pm, and asks for the extension to be reduced in depth or the flank window obscured. That comment engages the only matter the council may consider, and it is the kind that changes schemes.

Whatever the outcome, the documents a council expects for a full application are set out across the 66 report types by category if the developer ends up going that route instead.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.