Applying for Planning Permission

Once you decide that you need to make a planning application, you will have to submit the following forms and plans (guidance notes are attached to the forms to help you fill them in correctly). All the forms and details of the current fees payable, are available on this site and from the Development Control Service.

You will have to decide what type of planning application you need to make. The following are the most common:

• full - all details of the proposal are submitted at the outset. This is the appropriate application for changes of use, developments within a conservation area, or affecting a listed building and also for a house extension. Any permission is usually valid for three years.
• outline - used to establish whether the principle of development is acceptable without the expense of preparing detailed plans. This type of application is not appropriate for house extensions, changes of use, or for proposals within a conservation area or affecting a listed building.
• approval of reserved matters - this normally would follow within three years of an outline application being granted permission and covers the detailed matters which were not previously approved If your proposal involves a listed building, or the demolition of a building or structure (over certain limits) within a conservation area, you will also need to apply for Listed Building Consent and/or Conservation Area Consent.

If you do not feel competent to provide the level and standard of information required, particularly for the plans, you should consider engaging the help of an appropriate agent. Planning consultants, architects and surveyors will usually have the appropriate skills and will be well versed in the business of making planning and building regulation applications.

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