Pre-Application Advice
Why Seek Advice?
We encourage and welcome the opportunity to provide advice
before an application is made. Our aims are to enable
and promote high quality development as part of the Council’s
ambitious agenda to transform our District through growth. We
have reviewed how we can put more effort into achieving this.
Whilst we have to introduce charges, they will enable us to provide
a dedicated, responsive and professional service which will reduce
uncertainty and be highly cost effective for people preparing a
planning application. These fees are in addition to the
fees payable for the submission of applications. If you make
an application having received advice for which you have paid, the
full application submission fee remains applicable.
The advice is intended to help you understand the best way
to go about seeking permission. It should not be
confused with whether you need planning permission which is handled
through a different process.
There are considerable benefits in seeking our advice
as
- It gives you an opportunity to understand how
our policies will be applied to your development.
- It can identify at an early stage where there
is a need for specialist input, for example about listed buildings,
trees, landscape, noise, transport, contaminated land, ecology or
archaeology.
- It will assist you in preparing proposals for
formal submission which, providing you have taken our advice fully
into account, will be handled more quickly.
- It may lead to a reduction in time spent by
your professional advisors in working up proposals.
It may indicate that a proposal is completely unacceptable,
saving you the cost of pursuing a formal application.
In addition to determining applications for planning permission,
advertisement consent and listed building consent, the Development
Control Section is able to provide you with advice and information
on a variety of topics such as design.
We will still offer free informal telephone advice on simple
enquiries (telephone 01304 872486). You may also be able to find
the information you need on the planning pages of our website or on
the Planning Portal’s website www.planningportal.gov.uk.
In addition we offer brief advice from a Duty Officer for District
householders seeking to extend their homes.
Charges will now be made for pre-application advice, compliance
checks and researching planning histories for permitted development
restrictions.
Research of Permitted Development Rights and Planning
Histories
This provides confirmation of whether or not permitted
development rights have been removed from a dwelling. You may need
to know this to confirm if planning permission is required or
not.
- Research on Permitted Development Rights: £35
- Research on Planning Histories:
£35
- If no research is required there will be no
fee but photocopying charges may apply.
All prices are inclusive of VAT
What Matters Can be Covered?
The matters which could be the subject of
pre application advice include:-
- Planning History of the site;
- Statutory designations of the site, such as
Conservation areas, listed buildings, protected trees, nature
conservation etc.
- Relevant planning policies and other material
factors applying to the site/development
- The necessary forms, plans and fee
- Supporting information and documents
including Local Validation Requirements
- Advice regarding the procedure,
consultation arrangements and estimated time scale for processing
the application;
- Any requirements for developer
contributions to the infrastructure necessary to support the
proposed development, for example affordable housing, open space,
accessibility etc.;
- Informal, and without prejudice, comments
on the content, preparation and presentation of an application
likely to satisfy the Council’s planning policies;
- The merits of draft proposals (e.g.
appropriateness of design) and
- The provision of copies of any relevant
documents, subject to the Council’s standard copying charges
Information we will need from you
We will always ask you to write to us with details of your
proposal if you want us to comment on a particular building,
extension, design etc. If you wish us to meet you on site, it
may be preferable to contact us first so the correct fee can be
established
For all enquiries you will need to send us the
following as a minimum:
- Written details of the address and
proposal;
- Description of the nature and scale of the
development proposed and the uses to which land and buildings are
to be put;
- Site location plan with the site clearly
marked (to a recognised scale, north point etc);
- Sketch drawings providing details of the
proposal (to a recognised scale);
- Photographs of the site and surrounding
area, with particular regard to any nearby houses or other
development which might be affected by your proposal
- Contact details including phone number and
email address;
- Request for a site meeting (if any)
- The appropriate fee - No detailed
work will be undertaken until the full fee has been
paid.
Major schemes
All of the above information, plus;
- An initial design and access statement
- Access and parking arrangements;
- This may also need to be accompanied by
ecological, landscape, contamination, flood and transport
assessments depending upon the location, nature and complexity of
the development.
What we will do
On receipt of your initial enquiry, we will decide whether it
requires pre-application advice and what type of advice is most
suitable. We will then check that the appropriate fee has
been paid. If it has not, we will write to you confirming
that we will not progress your enquiry until the appropriate fee
has been paid.
Once the fee has been paid, your enquiry will be allocated to an
appropriate officer.
An acknowledgement will be sent within 3 working days of a valid
enquiry being received and it will include a receipt for the fee
and confirmation of the officer handling the request. We will do
our best to reply within 20 working days. In particularly complex
cases, more time may be needed and we advise you about when you may
expect a reply.
The written reply setting out our advice will comprise the
service for the standard charge. Further enquiries will be
charged another fee.
If we do not have enough information to answer your enquiry then
we will write to you by letter or email, setting out what
information we need. If the enquiry relates to a Major
proposal then you will be contacted by the officer allocated to
your enquiry, who will confirm whether there is sufficient
information to provide advice and, if not, will ask for additional
information. In either case, the clock will stop until all of
the information is received.
Where a meeting is sought, we will arrange a suitable date
depending on the complexity of the scheme and the amount of work
that will be needed beforehand. This may include any time
necessary to obtain initial views of other interested parties such
as the Highways Engineer, Environment Agency etc.
However, no meetings will take place without prior sight of the
requested information.
Attendance of other officers at the meeting, including
specialist advisors, will be at our discretion but will not require
the payment of additional fees.
Following the meeting, we will confirm the advice in a letter or
email. Again, this will usually be within 20 working days
unless the proposal is particularly complex, when an alternative
timescale will be agreed at the end of the meeting.
Should a further meeting be required, the scope for such a
meeting will be established beforehand together with the relevant
fee which must be received together with any relevant documents
before the subsequent meeting.
Any meeting will normally take place at the Council Offices at
Whitfield. The Development Control Manager may exceptionally
vary this to allow a request for a meeting on site. If so,
the fee will normally be adjusted to reflect time spent.
The Development Control Manager has the right to decline a
request for pre-application advice where it is not considered
either appropriate or necessary.
What are the charges?
Major Developments
- New residential development of 10 or more new
dwellings;
- Change of use of buildings or land where the
gross floorspace or site are is 1,000m² or more;
- New non-residential buildings and extensions
to non-residential buildings of 1,000m² or more of gross
floorspace;
- Mixed use developments where the combined
gross floorspace is of 1,000m² or more.
- Other large scale or complex/specialist
applications that require significant officer input (to cover cases
such as the Langdon Wind Farm which otherwise would fall as a
‘minor development’ based on these criteria)
Fee
- £250 or 1% of the appropriate fee under the Application Fees
Regulations, whichever is the greater, for written advice
only.Additional advice may be required and will be charged at the
same rate;
- £500 or 1.5% of the appropriate fee under the Application Fees
Regulations, whichever is the greaterfor up to an hour long meeting
plus written confirmation, additional meetings may be required and
these will be charged at the same rate. The Planning
Officer will agree the need for additional meetings and
may recommend the involvement of third parties if it is
felt necessary (Specialist Advice, Ward Members, Parish
Councils etc.;
- Where such proposals involve a parallel application relating to
a Listed Building, there will be a single charge at the higher
rate.
Minor Developments
- New residential developments of 1 to 9
dwellings;
- Residential conversions involving change of
use to more that one dwelling;
- Change of use of buildings or land where the
gross floorspace or site area is less that 1,000m²;
- New non-residential buildings and extensions
to non-residential buildings from 100m² to 1,000m² of gross
floorspace;
- Mixed use developments where the combined
gross floorspace is less that 1,000m².
- Proposals affecting Listed Buildings or
Conservation Areas;
- Advertisements.
Fee
- £150 for written advice only. Additional advice may be required
and will be charged at the same rate;
- £250 for up to an hour long meeting plus written confirmation,
additional meetings may be required and these will be charged at
the same rate. The Planning Officer will agree the need
for additional meetings and may recommend the involvement
of third parties if it is felt necessary (Specialist
Advice, Ward Members, Parish Councils etc.);
- Where such proposals involve a parallel application relating to
a Listed Building, there will be a single charge at the higher
rate.
Other Types of Developments
- New buildings and extensions and alterations to non-listed
buildings that require permission and are not covered above.
- Works to protected trees
Fee
- £50 for written advice only. Additional advice may be required
and will be charged at the same rate;
- £60 for up to an hour long meeting plus written confirmation,
additional meetings may be required and these will be charged at
the same rate. The Planning Officer will agree the need
for additional meetings and may recommend the involvement
of third parties if it is felt necessary (Specialist
Advice, Ward Members, and Parish Councils etc.);
- Where such proposals involve a parallel application relating to
a Listed Building, there will be a single charge at the higher
rate.
Please note that there will be no
charge for 15 minutes’ advice with our Duty Officer on one occasion
at our Offices on such matters to District householders. If
you wish us to visit your site, the higher charges will
apply.
What the costs cover
These fees cover administration costs and the time spent in
research, assessment, a meeting as necessary, and in making a
written response.
Any request for written advice must be accompanied by the
relevant fee otherwise advice cannot be provided. Each
project or separate site referred to in an enquiry will be charged
at the appropriate rate. Sites may not be artificially
divided in an attempt to attract a different tariff. Multiple
requests will attract the appropriate multiple fees.
The Development Control Manager has the right to determine the
fee. In the event of any disputes, the issue will be referred
to the Head of Development and Public Protection whose word will be
final. Where the appropriate fee is not paid within 15
working days after a reminder, submitted details will be returned
and no response given.
PLEASE NOTE
Our pre-application advice service
is offered to both developers and individual applicants including
householders. In either case there are some general points
which you should take into account before you contact us:
- Try to contact us at the earliest
reasonable opportunity in your project;
- Undertake some initial research
yourself including looking at our notes on how to submit a valid
application;
- Sound out the views of those who
may be affected by your proposals;
- Remember the more information you
can give us, the more accurate and helpful our response can be –
vague proposals can receive only vague advice. The key to the
success of this service will be you providing us with adequate
information in advance – this is set out in more detail in the
documents mentioned above; and
- On complex issues be prepared to
seek private professional help – our service is not intended to be
an alternative to employing professional consultants.
We will always do our best to give you the best advice we can on
the information which is to hand. However, you need to be aware
that any advice given by Council Officers for pre-application
enquiries does not constitute a formal decision by the Council as
Local Planning Authority. Any views or opinions are given in
good faith, and to the best of our ability but without prejudice to
the formal consideration of any planning application.
The final decision on any application that you may then make can
only be taken after we have consulted local people, statutory
consultees and any other interested parties. It will be made
by planning officers or by the Planning Committee and be based on
all of the information available at that time.
You should therefore be aware that officers cannot guarantee the
final formal decision that will be made on your
application(s). However, any pre-application advice
that has been provided will be carefully considered in reaching a
decision or recommendation on an application; subject to the
proviso that circumstances and information may change or come to
light that could alter that position.
Please note that the weight given to pre application advice will
decline over time.
Contact Planning
Telephone: 01304 872486
Email developmentcontrol@dover.gov.uk
