Blog: Submitting a planning application? Let us offer you some good advice

Sometimes spending a little money can save you a lot of money – and paying for expert advice before you submit a planning application is one great example.

Imagine the following scenario: you want to extend your house (or perhaps even build lots of new houses). You spend a lot of time and effort, and maybe money, putting together your planning application and then submit it to the council – paying the application fee at the same time.

Then, to your annoyance, you’re told that your application has been refused – or has no chance of being approved – and that all that time and money has been wasted.

Well, this is where seeking pre-application advice from a Shropshire Council planning officer can help.

Seeking advice before formally submitting a planning application can tell you if your plans are likely to be turned down, or highlight any changes you need to make to increase the application’s chances of success.

So how does it work? To apply for pre-application advice you simply need to complete a form and send it to the council, along with a location and site plan, sketches of the proposal, photographs of the site and surroundings, the appropriate fee and a brief summary of the proposals.

The charges start at £80 and go up to £1750, for large scale major proposals.

What do you get for your money? You’ll get the support of an allocated planning officer who will offer an informal opinion on the likely success of your application. They’ll also identify external consultees who are likely to have an interest in your proposal, and provide advice on the information required to validate the application. It may be necessary to arrange a meeting to go through all this.

Dependant on the scale and nature of the proposed development the planning officer will also seek advice from technical specialists within the council – eg. from the highways and access; ecology; rights of way; conservation, and landscape teams.

You’ll also be offered the chance to meet with the local councillor for the area and with someone from the relevant town or parish council, as well as advice about how to carry out a consultation with the local community.

And, if you’re in the Shrewsbury or Ludlow areas, you’ll also be given the opportunity to present your schemes at pre-application stage to a Development Management stakeholder group.

Most importantly, you’ll get advice that is reliable, up-to-date and tailored to your proposed development.

And, even better, if you’re planning work to a listed building, work on protected trees or trees in conservation areas, or if you’re seeking conservation area consent, you won’t be charged a penny for pre-application advice.

Pre-application advice really can be incredibly helpful and extremely valuable. At the end of the ‘pre-application’ process you will have an indication of whether your proposals have a chance of being approved, or if they are completely unacceptable, so saving you the cost of pursuing a formal application. And – if you do go ahead – you’ll know exactly what you need to do for your application to be validated and considered by the council.

So, before you submit a planning application, tell us what you’re planning and we’ll tell you what you need to know. It will be money well spent and really could save you a lot of money, time and disappointment.

To find out more, go to shropshire.gov.uk/planning.nsf , email planningdmc@shropshire.gov.uk, or call 0345 678 9000.