Pre-application Planning Advice
We are able to provide you with
advice and information if you are considering a development
proposal, and we encourage and welcome discussions before you
submit a planning application – whatever it is for.
The benefits to you
are:
- It gives you an opportunity to understand how our policies will
be applied to your development and you can identify potential
problems and sort them out before an application is submitted. This
can help prevent costly and time-consuming amendments to schemes
later;
- It may indicate that a proposal has little or no realistic
chance of success, thus saving you considerable time and
money;
- It may lead to a reduction in time spent by your professional
advisers in working up the proposals in more detail;
- It can identify at an early stage whether any specialist advice
is necessary- for example about listed buildings, trees, landscape,
transport, ecology or archaeology; and
- We can discuss with you details of the proposal, such as its
design and the materials to be used. This can help you prepare a
better planning application so we can process it more quickly and
give you a decision sooner.
In most cases pre-application
advice will continue to be provided free of charge. However, in
order for us to be able to provide the best possible service,
charges are made for advice on larger development proposals.
Some General Advice
Our pre-application advice service
is offered both to developers and 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;
- Sound out the views of those that 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 will
receive only vague advice. The key to the success of this service
will be providing 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.
Details of our pre–application planning advice service
Free advice
This is available prior to an
application for:
- extensions and alterations to single dwellings and other
householder applications;
- works to a listed building;
- works to trees covered by Tree Preservation Orders or located
in a conservation area; and
- Certificates of Lawful Use, to establish whether planning
permission is or was required.
Charges for advice for
larger proposals
Written Advice for small
commercial applications
£58.75 (£50 + VAT) will be charged
for written advice on all small proposals that will require a
consent from the local planning authority under the Planning Acts,
other than those free services listed above. This includes changes
of use, advertisement and other related applications.
Written Advice for Minor
applications
£117.50 (£100 + VAT) will be
charged for written advice on all Minor proposals. This includes
all applications not covered by the definitions for either small or
Major proposals (see below).
Advice involving meetings
with Officers
£293.75 (£250 + VAT) per hour or
part thereof will be charged where a meeting is required for small
or Minor applications and all Major proposals. Major proposals are
those for:
- 10 residential units or more;
- Residential sites of 0.5ha or more;
- The creation or change of use of 1,000m2 or more of
non-residential floor space; and
- All sites of more than 1 ha in size.
If the meeting is on site,
traveling time from our offices in Maidstone will also be
charged.
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: £35.25 (£30 +
VAT)
- Research on Planning Histories: £35.25 (£30 + VAT)
- If no research is required there will be no fee but
photocopying charges may be required.
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 charged at the appropriate rate.
The charge for a meeting will be
agreed at the end of each meeting in line with the time taken and
the fee scale above. An invoice will then be sent with payment
required within 21 days of the date of the invoice.
What matters can be covered in the pre-application advice
service?
- Planning history of the site;
- Statutory designations applying to the site, such as
conservation areas, listed buildings, AONB, protected trees and
SSSIs;
- Relevant planning policies applying to the site, together with
other planning and technical requirements such as car parking and
open space standards;
- The forms, plans and supporting information necessary to
provide a valid planning application;
- Advice regarding the procedure, consultation arrangements and
estimated timescale for processing the application;
- Advice on other statutory consents that may be required and how
they relate to the planning process;
- Provision of appropriate contacts necessary for any other
pre-application consultation and scheme preparation eg. Highways,
nature conservation, etc;
- Any likely requirements for developer contributions to the
infrastructure necessary to support the proposed development, for
example affordable housing, open space, accessibility and education
provision;
- Informal, and without prejudice, comments on the content,
preparation and presentation of an application likely to satisfy
the council’s planning policies;
- The provision of copies of any relevant documents, subject to
the Council’s standard copying charges; and
- Where requested, a pre-registration check of any proposed
planning application, including an assessment of any application
fees.
What you need to do
If your enquiry is very
straightforward, and is one where free advice is provided, you can
telephone us, write to us, or call in to our offices We will
normally ask you to write in with details of your proposal if you
want us to comment on a particular building, extension or
design.
For written
advice you will need to write to us including the
following as a minimum:
- Your name and contact details;
- Description of the proposed development and the uses to which
the land and buildings will be put;
- Site address and location plan (scale 1:1250) with the site
outlined in red
- Current use and occupancy of the site;
- Photographs (located on a sketch plan) showing the site as
existing and indicating buildings, trees, etc.;
- Sketch drawings providing details of the proposal. Floor plans
for each floor of the proposed building together with at least
sketch elevations that are sufficient to indicate the initial
architectural approach and palette of materials. These should show
the elevations in relation to any adjacent buildings so as to
identify the context of the scheme; and
- The appropriate advice fee.
For advice involving a
meeting you will also need to include all of the above but instead
of the advice fee you should confirm your agreement to pay a fee
later. The information you provide may also need to be accompanied
by other details such as an initial design and access statement,
and ecological, landscape, contamination, flood and transport
assessments depending on the location, nature and complexity of the
development.
What we will do
On receipt of your initial enquiry
we shall decide whether it requires pre-application advice and what
type of advice is most suitable. If we consider that advice is not
appropriate or necessary we shall let you know and return any fees
paid.
Your enquiry will be allocated an
appropriate planner and we will send you their details and, if
written advice is to be provided the date you may expect to
receive. This will normally be within 15 working days. This written
reply setting out our advice will comprise the service for the
standard charge. Further enquiries will be charged a further
fee.
If we do not have sufficient
information to answer your enquiry we will write to you by letter
or email setting out what further information we need.
If the enquiry relates to a major
proposal or where a meeting is needed we will contact you to
confirm whether you have submitted sufficient information to allow
us to provide you with advice and, if not, will ask you for
additional information. We will arrange a suitable date and time
for a meeting and, if not already received, conformation that you
agree to pay the appropriate charge at the relevant rate. The
timing of the meeting will depend on the complexity of the scheme
and the amount of work that will be needed prior to the meeting,
including the time needed to obtain the initial views of other
interested parties or agencies involved in the planning process.
Attendance of other officers at the meeting, including specialist
advisers, will be decided by the case officer. .
The meeting will normally be at the
Maidstone Borough Council offices but we can also consider site
meetings if required.
At the end of the meeting, the
appropriate fee will be agreed and this will be formally recorded
in writing. Following the meeting we will write to you confirming
the advice given. This will usually be within 15 working days
unless the proposal is particularly complex, when an alternative
timescale will be agreed.
Just remember…
Any advice given by council
officers following pre-application enquiries does not constitute a
formal response or decision of the council in respect of any future
planning applications.
Any views or opinions expressed are
given in good faith, and to the best of ability, based on existing
planning policies and standards, without prejudice to the formal
consideration of any future planning application. The final
decision on any application that you may then make can only be
taken after the council has consulted local people, statutory
consultees and other interested parties. The final decision on an
application will then be made by senior planning officers or by the
council’s Planning Committee and will be based on all of the
information available at the time.
It follows that officers cannot
give any guarantees about the final formal decision that will be
made on any future planning application. 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, and so alter that position. (The weight
given to pre-application advice notes will inevitably decline over
time and little or no weight may be given to the council’s
pre-application advice for schemes which are submitted more than
two years after the advice being issued)
Any advice given in relation to
planning history of the site, planning constraints or statutory
designations does not constitute a formal response under the
provisions of the Local Land Charges Act 1975.
Pre-application requests
for advice will not be subject to any publicity but we may be
obliged to release documents if we receive a Freedom of Information
request or Environmental Information Request and our file notes
will form part of the public file if an application follows. We
cannot therefore guarantee confidentiality. If the information you
provide includes commercially sensitive or confidential information
this should be clearly stated at the head of the submission. We can
then take this into account should an FOI/ EIR request be
received.