An Integrated Approach to Dealing with Development Proposals

Background and Principles

Planning is about delivering what people want – jobs, houses, better transport, lively town and city centres and the protection of our built heritage and countryside. To deliver these objectives in the most sustainable way planning has to be positive and pro-active and that includes working with the private sector at the early stages of the process.

The Council has set up a ‘Development Team’ to help achieve this. The team is made up of officers from all service areas of the Council to assess and give advice on enquiries which could lead to major or complex planning or listed building applications.

The team, co-ordinated by the Major Development Manager, will be able to give a corporate, consistent and comprehensive feedback quickly and effectively. This should assist developers in submitting an application in the most appropriate form and as a result delays in determining applications should be reduced.

The Development Team is the key vehicle to be used in carrying out the Model Delivery Contract arrangements (please see the separate leaflet on this). This seeks to establish a productive dialogue between the Council and developers, including the agreement of a programme for both pre-application discussions and also the determination of any resulting planning application.

In order for the team to work effectively there needs to be a mutual understanding between the Council and developer with regard to the availability of time and the quality of information submitted.

The Council’s Commitment

If the information submitted is of appropriate quality, the Development Team will normally respond to the enquiry between 14 and 28 days of receipt of the letter, plan(s) and supporting documentation.

On submission the Council is committed to the following:

• Providing a comprehensive and consistent response.
• Indicating the problem areas with any proposal which need to be addressed prior to the submission of a planning application.
• Identifying subject areas where further information may be required, such as Environmental Statements, Transportation Assessments, Ecological Surveys etc.
• Detailing any corporate requirements such as the provision of transportation measures, affordable housing, and community facilities, for example.
• A clear indication of why a proposal might be unacceptable, particularly in relation to current local and national planning policies.

The response made by the Development Team is intended as the first stage of a dialogue between the Council and developers that should take place before a planning application is made. Once the comments and any requests for further information made by the Development Team have been taken into account and acted upon, developers and their agents can then have meetings directly with key members of the Development Team in order to discuss their proposals ‘around the table’.

Types of Proposals and Time Available

Proposals fall into many categories and it is often difficult to define which ones are ‘major’ or ‘significant’. A relatively small proposal in the context of area or floorspace for example can be extremely complex and raise many different issues. It is therefore difficult to put proposals into neat categories.

As there is a finite number of hours available, it is vital that officer time dedicated to this pre-application work is carefully managed in order to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the process.

Once the Development Team response has been issued, it will be possible to agree a programme for further discussions as part of the Model Delivery Contract arrangements. This will depend on the complexity of the issues involved as well as the quality of the information submitted.

The time available will also be affected by the current workload at the time.

Information Needed

In order to produce a useful and comprehensive response it is essential that the submission includes an appropriate level of information. It is difficult to be too prescriptive, in that it will depend on the type of proposal.

The following is a broad guideline for the type of information that should be submitted:

• A clearly marked location plan at 1:1250 or 1:2500 scale based on an extract from the Ordnance Survey
• An existing site plan illustrating the siting of any existing buildings and trees (including canopy spreads)
• Supporting plans (to scale), sketches and / or drawings which clearly indicate the nature and scale of the development envisaged. The more information that can be provided at this stage, the more complete the response will be.
• Supporting documentation as necessary to fully explain the nature and context of the development. Examples of this are: overall supporting statement / report; design justification statement; justification for the parking ratio being applied (such as location of supporting services and bus stops); tree report etc.

An important issue to bear in mind when putting together your submission is that developers and their agents do not attend meetings of the Development Team when proposals are considered for the first time. Therefore, submissions should be self-explanatory to a certain extent.

On initial Inspection by the Major Development Manager it may be necessary in some cases for additional information to be requested before the Development Team process can be instigated.

The number of copies of submissions will depend on the complexity of the proposal and the number of issues raised, as each member of the Development Team involved in assessing a proposal will receive a copy of the submission. However, a minimum of five copies of all plans and supporting information will be needed in order to enable swift and comprehensive circulation to members of the Development Team

How to Contact Us

Major Developments Team - Tel: 01225 477503 or Email: development_control@bathnes.gov.uk

Prior to making a submission to the Development Team, you are advised to contact the Major Development Manager, who will be able to advise you on issues such as timescales and the number of copies required. An initial meeting with the Major Development Manager in order to explain the proposal, confirm the issues that are likely to be raised, and to agree the format of the submission, would also be useful in making the Development Team process run more smoothly.