Site notices, neighbour letters and the 21 day period

Planning site notice rules sit in article 15 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, and they give councils a choice in most cases. For ordinary minor development the authority must either display a site notice or serve notice on adjoining owners and occupiers. It does not have to do both, which is why a neighbour two doors away can hear nothing at all and still have missed nothing the council was obliged to do.

The representation period is 21 days, counted from a date that depends on which form of publicity was used.

What publicity the procedure order requires

The requirement scales with the sensitivity of the application rather than with the number of people affected.

Applications for listed building consent, and applications affecting the setting of a listed building or the character of a conservation area, carry their own publicity requirements under the listed building regulations, which generally means a site notice and a newspaper advertisement.

Many councils publicise more than the minimum as a matter of local policy, and some publish that policy in their statement of community involvement. Local practice is not a legal requirement, but a council that departs from its own published practice will usually be asked why.

Site notice display and the minimum period

A site notice must be displayed by firm affixing to some object, on or near the land, in a position where it can be read by the public without going onto the land. It has to stay up for not less than 21 days.

The representation period runs for 21 days beginning with the date the notice was first displayed. That phrase matters. Beginning with means the first day counts, so a notice first displayed on a Monday gives a period ending three weeks later on the Sunday, not the Monday.

Site notices go missing. The Order deals with this by treating the authority as having complied where the notice is removed, obscured or defaced without any fault or connivance on its part, provided it took reasonable steps to protect the notice and, where necessary, to replace it. In practice a council that is told a notice has vanished will usually put up another and restart the period, because the alternative is a decision with a weakness in it.

Neighbour notification by letter

Where the council notifies by letter rather than by site notice, the statutory obligation is to serve notice on any adjoining owner or occupier. Adjoining means land that shares a boundary with the application site.

That is narrower than most people expect. A house directly opposite across a road does not adjoin the site. Nor does a house whose garden touches the garden of a house that adjoins. Councils routinely go wider than the minimum, notifying everyone in a street or within a radius, but where they have not, the omission is usually lawful rather than a mistake.

The period is again 21 days, beginning with the date the notice was served. Service is the date of posting under the ordinary rules, not the date of delivery, so a letter that arrives late still counts from when it was sent.

If you are not an adjoining occupier and want to know about applications near you, do not rely on letters. Use the council's weekly list of registered applications, which most authorities publish online and many will send by email.

Press notices and when they are required

Newspaper advertisement is required for the categories in the table, in a newspaper circulating in the area where the land is situated. The 21 day period runs from the date of publication.

The practical value of press notices has declined, and they are the part of the system most often criticised as expensive and little read. They remain a legal requirement where the Order specifies them, and a major application advertised without one has a defect whatever anyone thinks of their usefulness.

Where several publicity routes are used and they start on different dates, the period effectively runs to whichever expires last. A council determining an application before the last of those dates has determined it too early.

What happens if publicity is defective

Start by separating two things: a defect the council can cure, and a decision already taken.

Before a decision, the remedy is simple and almost always granted. Write to the case officer, set out what publicity you say was missing or defective, and ask for it to be repeated with a fresh 21 day period. Attach a photograph if a site notice was absent or illegible on a date you can prove. Officers would generally rather re-advertise than defend a decision later.

After a decision, the position is harder. A failure to carry out required publicity can make a decision vulnerable to judicial review, but the claim must be brought promptly and within six weeks for planning decisions, permission is needed, and the court has a discretion to refuse relief where the outcome would have been the same. The practical consequence is that publicity complaints are worth far more before determination than after it. A related question arises where a scheme is changed mid-application, and the rules on re-consultation after amended plans decide whether a fresh period is required.

Counting the days correctly

Three rules cover almost every dispute.

1. The period is 21 days beginning with the relevant date, so that date is day one.
2. The relevant date is the date of first display for a site notice, the date of service for a letter, and the date of publication for a press notice.
3. Where more than one form of publicity is used, work to the latest expiry.

Weekends and bank holidays count. There is no extension for the Christmas period, although councils often apply one informally and will usually accept a late representation received before the decision is issued.

Late is not the same as too late. A council must take into account representations received within the statutory period, and it may take into account anything received before the decision is made. Officers generally do, so send it anyway, and say in the first line that it is being submitted late and ask for it to be considered.

Checking publicity on a live application

The council's online register is the place to look, and the documents are usually there if you scroll far enough.

Look for a scanned or photographed copy of the site notice with a date, the neighbour notification schedule or a sample letter, and a copy or certificate of the press advertisement. Then check the consultee responses tab for the statutory consultees, because publicity to the public is only half of the picture.

If the file shows nothing, ask the case officer directly which form of publicity was used, on what date, and when the period expires. That is a short email and it is answered as a matter of routine. The same register is where you can see what must be held on the statutory planning register for every application.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice, and publicity requirements turn on the current wording of the Order and on the type of application, so check the position with your local planning authority before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. If you are preparing an application rather than responding to one, see which documents your site is likely to need.