Planning ...
The Planning System - Overview
The planning system is a key regulator of the natural and built environment, and must balance the needs of economic development and social renewal alongside environmental protection and historic conservation. In short, the planning system attempts to regulate the use of land to provide the maximum benefits to the community, and seeks to ensure that any development is sustainable, providing for the current population without compromising the needs of future generations.
For ease of navigation, this site has divided the authority’s planning service into three sections:
- Development Control
- Planning Policy
- Conservation & Design
Development Control
Development control is the process of dealing with individual development proposals to ensure that they meet local, regional and national planning polices and guidelines. Each proposal is assessed on its own merits, taking into account policy, need, local circumstances and public opinion.
Development Control regulates development that falls within the scope of planning legislation, such development can range from ground works, felling of trees, the erection of advertisements through to large-scale developments. However some minor developments do not require planning consent (See ‘Establishing a need for planning permission’).
Most developments require planning consent from the Local Planning Authority, however the type of consent required will vary with the proposal. In general though, a development proposal will need to be applied for, through the submission of a planning application (See ‘Development Control - Overview’).
Note: Development Control should not be confused with Building Control, which deals with the structural aspects of development.
Planning Policy
Planning policy is responsible for the production of local planning policies that are used to assess the merits of planning proposals. The key document is the statutory ‘Unitary Development Plan’ which sets out the land use principles for the borough, any proposal should give first regard to the policies contained in this document, unless other material considerations apply.
However, since the release of the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, a new policy framework, the ‘Local Development Framework’ (LDF), has become the focus of attention for the planning policy section. This new framework will eventually replace the unitary development plan, and it is hoped that the new system will offer a more pro-active approach to planning.
For further information, please visit the Planning policy section.
Conservation & design
A special section has been created to cater for matters involving conservation and other specialist design criteria. In general though, conservation and design will consider planning issues that relate to conservation areas and listed buildings , as well as other areas or buildings with significant design constraints.
For further information, please visit the Conservation and design section.