Planning pre-application advice

Are you considering carrying out building works? Why not discuss your proposal with us first?

We can provide you with valuable advice about your proposal and indicate whether planning permission is likely to be granted.

Our pre-application advice service will help you to:

have a clearer idea about whether your planning application is likely to be successful
avoid the cost of a planning application if your proposal is likely to be unsuccessful
ensure a better quality application submission, with better outcomes and ultimately a better built development
reduce the time your professional advisors have to spend on your planning proposal.

Do you need planning permission?

Before applying for pre-application advice, please check whether the work you want to carry out requires planning permission by using the interactive guide on the Planning Portal.

If you do not need planning permission then you don't need to apply for pre-application advice.

Do you need information relating to your property?

You can use our interactive map to view relevant planning information for your property.

Apply for pre-application advice

We offer different levels of pre-application advice. For information on each level of service and to find out which level you should use, please view our pre-application advice service page.

The fee for each service level is also tiered depending on the scale of the development proposed. This is split between residential and other types of development. Please see our pre-application advice charges page for further information.

Please note we no longer accept postal submissions or cheque payments for our pre-application service.

Duty planning officer

The Council offers a duty planning officer service between 09:00 and 13:00 Monday to Friday.

This is a drop in service at the Council offices to provide basic, non-site specific planning enquiries to members of the public. The duty planning officer will not be able to comment on specific development proposals or look over plans. This service is also not intended to be used by professional planning agents to bypass the Council's pre-application advice service.

Please note that only one duty officer is available per day and therefore at busy times members of the public may need wait a short period of time to see the duty officer.