Planning Pre-Application Advice

Rochford District Council welcomes and encourages discussions before a planning application is submitted. Such discussions can assist in better quality applications, which stand a better chance of a successful outcome. Nevertheless, it is necessary for the Council to apply a charge for this service.

 There are considerable benefits in seeking advice before making an application:

• It gives you the opportunity to understand how policies and guidance will be applied to your development
• It can identify at an early stage where there is a need for specialist input, for example about urban design, listed buildings, trees, landscape, noise, transport, contaminated land, ecology or archaeology
• It may lead to a reduction in time spent by your professional advisors in working up proposals, identifying potential problems and sorting them out before an application is submitted
• It may indicate that a proposal is completely unacceptable, saving you the cost of pursuing a formal application
• It will ensure that you provide all the necessary information and drawings to enable the application to be registered as valid.

The scheme of charges set out below came into effect on 1st April 2012.

Payment must be made in advance. Please also ensure that the payment is for the correct amount as anomalies will delay us being able to process your application. The amount payable, including VAT @20%, is shown in the table. The fee paid is not refundable and will not be offset against the planning application fee.

Advice for householders

Free advice will be available to householders who want to extends their home or make other alterations. A Duty Planning Officer will be available to speak to you on telephone number 01702 546366 or at our customer reception in Rochford from 8:30 am to 13:00 pm, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and 13:00 pm to 17:30 pm Wednesday. Alternatively you can email the duty officer at planning.applications@rochford.gov.uk

Permitted Development Enquiries

The Duty Officer will be able to give general verbal advice on Permitted Development enquiries (i.e. if a proposal requires planning permission) and further advice is available on our website. If you want written confirmation of whether an application is required you should apply for a Lawful Development Certificate. Details can be found on our website.

What you should provide with your submission

You will need to provide the following information as a minimum:

• Completed pre-application advice request application form
• Correct fee (see charging schedule above)
• Full site address and location plan (1:1250 scale) with the site outlined in red
• Draft of Design and Access Statement (not applicable to householder development)
• 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. Drawings should also show any adjacent buildings and boundaries to identify the context of the scheme
• Photographs of the site and adjoining properties affected by the development
• Proposed developments involving 100 dwellings or more or 10,000 sq.m. floor space or more, should be accompanied by an initial outline for the proposal for the site
• Site history i.e. occupancy of the site where the proposal relates to a change of use

What can you expect?

• Acknowledgement of receipt of submission including reference number and case office
• The case officer may need to make contact to arrange a meeting time, date and venue, request additional information and/or advise how long it will take to respond to your enquiry
• An agreed maximum time for each meeting – see the table below.
• We aim to provide a formal response within 20 working days for written requests and 10 working days following a meeting, unless an alternative timescale has been agreed between the parties, for example, to allow consultation with other organisations or individuals.

How will the advice be structured?

The matters, which could be subject to pre-application discussions, include:

• Whether the proposed type of development is acceptable in principle
• Relevant planning history of the site
• The surrounding context of the site
• Relevant policies and constraints
• Recommended consultations before the application is submitted
• Issues relevant to the type and scale of proposed development, such as: urban design, amenity, transport and environmental issues including noise, contamination, flooding, drainage and biodiversity
• Likely developer contributions
• Case Officer conclusions

General Advice

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 – our website may help
• Sound out the views of those that may be affected by your proposals
• The more information you can give us, the more helpful and accurate our response can be
• On complex issues be prepared to seek private professional advice.

Meetings with Members

In accordance with the Council’s protocol, pre-application meetings can involve Council Members. The charges for meetings that also involve Members will be as per the charging schedule. Feedback from such meetings will be in the form of a written note of the meeting plus together with any additional information requests agreed at the meeting.

Disclaimer

You should be aware that any advice given by the Council in relation to pre-application enquiries will be based on the case officer's professional judgement and will not constitute a formal response or decision of the Council with regard to any future planning applications. Any views or opinions expressed, are given without prejudice to the consideration by the Council of any formal planning application, which will be subject to wider consultation and publicity. Although the case officer may indicate the likely outcome of a formal planning application, no guarantees can or will be given about the decision that will be made on any such application.

Other issues to consider

• Planning permission does not over-ride the need to obtain any necessary approvals under the Building Regulations, Party Wall Act or any other relevant legislation.
• Separate approval may also be required in other areas, for example, restrictive covenants, shared agreements, easements, rights of way etc.
• It should be noted that policies, constraints etc. change from time to time and may affect the advice given. The weight that can be given to pre-application advice will therefore decline over time
• The Council positively encourages applicants to enter into pre-application discussions but if a major or minor application is submitted without such discussions, the Council may determine the application as submitted without post submission discussions.
•  Any advice given in relation to the 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.
• The provisions of The Freedom of Information Act bind the Council, as a public authority, and therefore it should be presumed that information supplied to the Council is likely to be disclosable under the above Act. If you want information to remain confidential, you should state clearly why. Information sent to the Council "in confidence" may still be disclosable under the above Act. Before sending such information you are advised to take legal advice if there are fears that disclosure would prejudice you in some commercial way
• The written advice will depend upon the information presented (please see 'what you should provide'). Advice will usually be in the form of a written report considering the areas identified above.

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires us to make all documents available to members of the public, if requested. Pre-application advice can only be treated as confidential if there are clearly demonstrable issues of commercial sensitivity or other significant reasons why this information may not be made public. (Any enquiry in this category should be clearly marked as confidential). If a planning application is made as a result of pre-application advice, all documentation may be publicly available, as they will form background papers to the application.

Our Commitment to You

If the Council exceeds a period of 8 weeks to provide a written response (unless a longer period of time has been agreed in writing), and is at fault, a refund will be given to show our commitment to this service.

For further information…

Once you have completed your application form and attached the relevant information please send your enquiry to the following postal address: Planning, Rochford District Council, Council Offices, South Street, Rochford, Essex, SS4 1BW

Or via email to: planning.applications@rochford.gov.uk

All prices include VAT

Note A – 1 meeting of up to 2 hours

Note B – 1 meetings of up to 3 hours

Note C – 1 meetings of up to 3 hours or alternatively £1800 for 2 meetings or £4200 for a package of up to 6 meetings

Small – 1 dwelling or up to 999 square metres commercial floor area, including small changes to plant or other alterations to commercial premises

Minor – 2-9 dwellings or 1000-1,999 square metres

Major – 10-99 dwellings or 2,000-4,999 square metres

Strategic - +100 dwellings or + 5,000 square metres

Householder – extensions, alterations, outbuildings, etc.

Where a proposal does not fall into one of the published categories, the charge for pre-application advice will be agreed by negotiation.