Introduction
From Monday 4th April 2011 Gateshead Council are charging for providing pre application advice. From that date all pre application enquires will need to be submitted on the appropriate form with a minimum level of information included to be validated and a fee will be charged. The validation requirements and fees for the service are set out in the Pre-Application Fees Table.
Gateshead Council is committed to providing an efficient and effective planning service. The Council therefore offers a dedicated pre-application advice service providing impartial and professional advice aimed at helping you submit a complete and accurate planning application which complies with the relevant plans, policies and guidance.
What are the benefits of pre-application advice?
It explains how plans, policies and other requirements affect your proposals;
It identifies at an early stage any need for specialist advice or issues that need to be addressed and indicates the third party organisations you should seek advice from;
It helps you prepare your planning application and ensures that all the necessary plans and supporting documents are submitted with your planning application
It gives an indication of the likely requirement for contributions to be made by the developer (e.g. levels of affordable housing, highways or sustainable travel contributions);
It can reduce the time that you and your professional staff / consultants spend on working up your proposals;
It highlights unacceptable proposals saving you the time and costs of submitting a formal application
Providing you take all the advice into account means your application can be dealt with without any unnecessary delay.
Charges
Pre-application advice is a non-statutory part of our service and the Council has a duty to make effective use of our resources. To help offset the cost of supplying this service and improve efficiency the Council has decided to charge a modest fee for providing pre-application advice and other planning enquiries. These charges are made in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 2003.
The fee required depends on the nature of your enquiry and the scale of development proposed but it should be noted that this does not fully cover the cost of delivering this service.
Concessions
There will be no charge for customers who are disabled and are seeking advice to adapt their property to meet their needs due to their disability. There will also be no charge for registered charitable organisations or for internal Council projects being funded by the Council (externally funded projects will be charged).
Points to Note
Whilst we always aim to provide an impartial and professional response to all enquiries we cannot act as planning consultants and any advice given cannot prejudice the Council’s final decision on your proposal when a formal planning application is made. All planning applications will be subject to public consultation and ultimately may be decided by the Planning and Development Committee.
Where a planning application is submitted without the benefit of pre-application advice, or pre-application advice is not followed, the application is likely to be determined without further negotiation except where only very minor amendments are required to make a development acceptable. Failure to seek or follow pre application advice may result in your application not being valid as you have not included relevant and necessary information. Failure to seek and/or follow pre application advice could lead to the refusal of planning permission.
It should be noted that subsequent alterations to local and national planning policies might affect the advice given and it is prudent therefore to act in a timely manner. We shall of course endeavour to make you aware of potential changes we are aware of that may effect your proposal.
Whilst we will seek to identify third party organisations that should be consulted on your proposals we cannot provide advice on their behalf.
Whilst we can provide advice that will assist you in developing the design for your proposals we cannot assist in the drawing up of plans or recommending certain companies to you (for example architects or planning consultants).
Our pre-application advice relates only to issues relating to planning. You should be aware that your development may also require consent under other legislation including building control, licensing and highways legislation. Your land may also have legal covenants on it that the Council are unaware of and these would need to be dealt with as a civil matter by you with any interested party.
What pre-application services do we provide?
The Council offers a range of pre-application advice for both householder and non-householder (mainly commercial) development.
Householder Planning Service
This service is aimed at local residents who wish to carry out works to extend their home or carry out other works within the curtilage of a dwelling. This could include building an extension, a detached garage or outbuilding, decking, paving, driveways or boundary walls, fences or gates.
We offer two levels of householder service
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Householder Pre-Application Enquiries (Will I get Planning Permission?).
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Householder Permitted Development Enquiries (Do I need Planning Permission?).
Non-Householder Planning Service
This service covers all other non-householder development including new development, alterations and extensions to existing properties, changes of use, advertisements and telecommunications development.
Our non-householder planning services include:
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Non-Householder Permitted Development Enquiry (Do I need Planning Permission?).
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Minor Development Enquiry
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Major Development Enquiry
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Strategic Development Enquiry
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Telecommunications Enquiry
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Planning History Search
FORMS, FEES AND CHARGES
4th April 2011.
Pre-application guidance notes
The Council does offer some general pre-application advice at no charge on several types of development. These can be downloaded below.
These pre prepared guides and advice notes have been produced to help identify the main points to consider, in order to achieve an acceptable planning proposal.
The guides and advice notes give general advice only, so it is important to note that the guidance provided is not site specific and may not be wholly applicable in all situations. Each planning application is dealt with on its own merits and the Council needs to consider all material planning considerations relevant to the individual application.
Guides for Extending Your Home
The following guidance relates to extending you home. It is not adopted council policy in the same way the policies in the Unitary Development Plan (UDP). The guides provide informal pre prepared guidance to assist home owners in designing an acceptable scheme.
Other Guides
The Council have produced a number of other guides relating to topic areas which will be of assistance depending on the nature of development proposed.