Important - changes to pre-application and informal enquiry services

Due to an extremely high volume of work, we are making some temporary changes to the services we offer.

We will no longer be providing pre-application advice to residents, applicants, agents, developers, and others. We are focussing on our core statutory duties, with the aim of getting our service levels back to normal.

If you're considering an application, guidance is available to help with pre-application considerations (planning policy documents). These include:

• adopted Local Plan (Housing Local Plan, Regeneration DPD, and Core Strategy)
• adopted Supplementary Urban Design Guide
• site-specific development guidance documents
• interim hot food takeaways policy
• interim policy on conversions of residential properties

We will also no longer be able to respond to informal enquiries about whether or not planning permission is needed. Please note, this does not mean that planning permission or other planning-related controls are no longer needed. We will continue to deal with any breaches of planning control through planning enforcement. If you need to know whether a proposed development needs planning permission, you can submit an application for a Certificate of Lawful Development for Proposed Works or Proposed Use of Land. You can apply for a Lawful Development Certificate through the Planning Portal, which also contains guidance on making the application.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The changes are temporary, and we hope to restart these services as soon as possible.