HOW TO COMMENT ON PLANNING APPLICATIONS
This is our guide for those who may wish to comment on planning applications*, but who are either not entirely sure how to go about it, or who have some experience, but would like some further advice.
We're not saying you must follow all or any of it - you are all free to make comments to applications as you choose - but we hope it will be helpful.
At the foot of the "Make comments" tab page you will find a "tick-list" pro-forma of reasons why you may consider any particular application should be refused.
* We have deliberately written this guide with making objections to planning applications in mind, not because we're encouraging anyone to do that or discouraging anyone from supporting applications: it's simply that we think if you want to support an application you're unlikely to need to follow all the steps set out in our advice. That said if you want to support an application you may still find some elements of the guide - for example how to find out about current applications - useful
The guide is in 5 stages - just click the subject tab below that you'd like to read about
Alternatively you can read this guide produced by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England:
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METHOD 1: Use the links on this site. Click here to find them
METHOD 2: Search Breckland Council's site. Click here for guidelines on how to do that
METHOD 3: Public notices
Breckland Council must post notices about applications at or near the proposed site - you'll usually find them on the nearest telegraph pole. They also put announcements in the EDP.
Breckland Council must post notices about applications at or near the proposed site - you'll usually find them on the nearest telegraph pole. They also put announcements in the EDP.
METHOD 4: Visit the Breckland Council office in Dereham and ask to see Saham Toney applications
By law they must make a planning register publicly available. But naturally this is not the most convenient method unless you're going there anyway.
By law they must make a planning register publicly available. But naturally this is not the most convenient method unless you're going there anyway.
Documents to Expect With An Application
There will always be:
There will always be:
- An application form. This will tell you who is making the application and may tell you how many houses are proposed and of what size;
- A location plan to show you where the site is and how big it is;
- A site layout plan which should show at least the planned houses, the site roads and trees on the site.
- A design and access statement. As a minimum this should explain the design principles; the context of the development; and how the site will be accessed from the highway;
- A planning statement. This will generally try to justify the proposed development.
- Plan and elevation drawings of the new buildings. These will give an idea of how the new buildings will look;
- A tree survey and report. This will highlight any formally protected trees and explain the measures that will be taken to protect all tree on the site during construction, and justify why some may need to be felled;
- A ecology report. This will concentrate on the impact of building on any protected species.
- A contaminated land statement. This will identify if any measures are needed to deal with previous contamination before building starts;
- A flood risk assessment. This should assess all potential types of flooding the site is at risk from, and explain how risks, if any, will be mitigated.
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How To Make Comments On An Application
Of course it's entirely up to you how you comment on any application. So you may take or leave the advice that follows. It's simply a set of tips based on what we've found tends to have some influence on planners when they make their decisions. But there'll always be local knowledge that falls outside these suggestions, and written in the right way that can be useful too.
You can of course support or object to an application. If you want to support, we think you will be able to do that without any guidance from us, so what follows applies mostly to writing objections - though it could be used to support an application if you feel you need to justify your support.
Here are some of the main things about an application you may wish to comment on:
But if you don't want to go to the extent of referencing policies, don't worry! If you simply make reference to the points listed above, a planning officer will be able to relate your comments to policies.
Planning applications are assessed on facts not emotion. Now sometimes you may disagree the facts presented in an application are accurate, sometimes you may think relevant facts have been deliberately missed out, and sometimes you may find they are downright falsehoods! It's perfectly valid to point such things out in your comments, and to ask the planning officer to ignore any false or misleading claims made by an applicant. If you can give clear evidence as to why the application is inaccurate, all the better.
In addition to inaccuracies and policy violations, you may feel that your objections to an application could be overcome if certain changes and improvements to it were made. Explain those things in your objection. If the planning officer agrees with you they may become planning conditions that the applicant has to adhere to later when building takes place.
Of course it's entirely up to you how you comment on any application. So you may take or leave the advice that follows. It's simply a set of tips based on what we've found tends to have some influence on planners when they make their decisions. But there'll always be local knowledge that falls outside these suggestions, and written in the right way that can be useful too.
You can of course support or object to an application. If you want to support, we think you will be able to do that without any guidance from us, so what follows applies mostly to writing objections - though it could be used to support an application if you feel you need to justify your support.
Here are some of the main things about an application you may wish to comment on:
- Where the proposed site is located;
- The proposed layout, number and density of buildings;
- The size of the proposed new houses;
- The effect on the landscape;
- The effect on the character of the village;
- The effect on historical features, which may include listed buildings;
- Access to and from the site and highway safety;
- The risk of flooding, on the site itself, and to other properties as a resulting of building the new houses;
- The effects on trees, hedges and wildlife, particularly protected species;
- The design and appearance of the new buildings;
- The effects on communal views;
- The inclusion of affordable housing, if any;
- Overshadowing / overlooking of neighbouring properties and loss of privacy;
- Will local infrastructure (roads, schools, health facilities etc) be adequate for the number of new houses proposed.
But if you don't want to go to the extent of referencing policies, don't worry! If you simply make reference to the points listed above, a planning officer will be able to relate your comments to policies.
Planning applications are assessed on facts not emotion. Now sometimes you may disagree the facts presented in an application are accurate, sometimes you may think relevant facts have been deliberately missed out, and sometimes you may find they are downright falsehoods! It's perfectly valid to point such things out in your comments, and to ask the planning officer to ignore any false or misleading claims made by an applicant. If you can give clear evidence as to why the application is inaccurate, all the better.
In addition to inaccuracies and policy violations, you may feel that your objections to an application could be overcome if certain changes and improvements to it were made. Explain those things in your objection. If the planning officer agrees with you they may become planning conditions that the applicant has to adhere to later when building takes place.
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IF YOU WOULD PREFER TO USE A SIMPLE CHECKLIST TO MAKE YOUR COMMENTS, YOU COULD USE THE PRO-FORMA BELOW. THIS AIMS TO INCLUDE ALL OF THE MOST LIKELY REASONS FOR OBJECTIONS ON A SINGLE PAGE< AND ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS ADD THE APPLICATION NUMBER AND TICK THOSE REASONS YOU CONSIDER ARE REASONS TO OBJECT TO A PARTICULAR APPLICATION.
THE FILE IS IN MICROSOFT WORD FORMAT, SO SHOULD YOU WISH YOU MAY ALSO ADD YOUR OWN TEXT TO EXPAND ON ANY OF THE REASONS GIVEN ON THE PRO-FORMA (As just one example you may want to send evidence of flooding in the area)
THE FILE IS IN MICROSOFT WORD FORMAT, SO SHOULD YOU WISH YOU MAY ALSO ADD YOUR OWN TEXT TO EXPAND ON ANY OF THE REASONS GIVEN ON THE PRO-FORMA (As just one example you may want to send evidence of flooding in the area)
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Your Right to Speak Against an Application
As well as members of the public, there are a number of organisations known as "statutory consultees" that must be asked for their opinion about planning applications. For developments in Saham once of these is our Parish Council, and others included highways and ecology specialists at Norfolk County Council. When the minimum time has elapsed since an application was publicised by Breckland Council (normally 3 weeks) and when all statutory consultees have responded, the planning officer assigned to the case will write a report summarising the nature of the application and the comments received about it. At the end of the report will be a recommendation on whether to permit or refuse the application. A final decision is then made by the Breckland Council Planning Committee which is a group of district councillors. That committee holds a monthly meeting to decide applications, usually on the first Monday of the month, at the Council's office in Dereham. At those meetings for each application being considered the planning officer briefly summarises his / her report, then the following groups have the chance to speak if they wish:
If you do wish to speak you must apply to do so with Breckland Council no later than the Friday before the Committee meeting. The most likely reason for wanting to speak would be if you disagree with the planning officer's recommendation for the application.
If you are going to speak we strongly advise you to be well prepared. 3 minutes is about enough time to read out a single A4 sheet of text. If you run over your time the Chairman will stop you regardless of whether you have finished or not. If you are unprepared your 3 minutes be up before you have said much that is useful. So type out your speech in advance and practice it while timing yourself.
As with written comments what you say to the committee should be based on facts rather than emotion.
Note: Most simple applications are decided without being discussed at a committee meeting. For example in September 2018 while 26 applications were decided by the committee, 146 were decided by planning officers alone, resulting in 131 approvals and 15 refusals - these were mostly applications for extensions, conversions, changes of use or discharge / variation of planning conditions. See the Breckland Council guide for details:
As well as members of the public, there are a number of organisations known as "statutory consultees" that must be asked for their opinion about planning applications. For developments in Saham once of these is our Parish Council, and others included highways and ecology specialists at Norfolk County Council. When the minimum time has elapsed since an application was publicised by Breckland Council (normally 3 weeks) and when all statutory consultees have responded, the planning officer assigned to the case will write a report summarising the nature of the application and the comments received about it. At the end of the report will be a recommendation on whether to permit or refuse the application. A final decision is then made by the Breckland Council Planning Committee which is a group of district councillors. That committee holds a monthly meeting to decide applications, usually on the first Monday of the month, at the Council's office in Dereham. At those meetings for each application being considered the planning officer briefly summarises his / her report, then the following groups have the chance to speak if they wish:
- The applicant or a representative;
- Someone from the applicable parish council;
- A district councillor representing the area in which the proposed development is located;
- Members of the public.
If you do wish to speak you must apply to do so with Breckland Council no later than the Friday before the Committee meeting. The most likely reason for wanting to speak would be if you disagree with the planning officer's recommendation for the application.
If you are going to speak we strongly advise you to be well prepared. 3 minutes is about enough time to read out a single A4 sheet of text. If you run over your time the Chairman will stop you regardless of whether you have finished or not. If you are unprepared your 3 minutes be up before you have said much that is useful. So type out your speech in advance and practice it while timing yourself.
As with written comments what you say to the committee should be based on facts rather than emotion.
Note: Most simple applications are decided without being discussed at a committee meeting. For example in September 2018 while 26 applications were decided by the committee, 146 were decided by planning officers alone, resulting in 131 approvals and 15 refusals - these were mostly applications for extensions, conversions, changes of use or discharge / variation of planning conditions. See the Breckland Council guide for details:
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Planning Appeals
If a planning application is refused the applicant has a right to take it to appeal. However if it is permitted there is no right for you, or others to appeal.
Appeals are heard by someone from the Planning Inspectorate, appointed by the Government. If you made comments on a planning application that then goes to appeal, Breckland Council should write to you to let you know about that and tell you where you can find the appeal documents. Sometimes those are added to Breckland Council's planning website, but in our experience, not always. However in any case there should be reference to an appeal number a planning inspectorate website where the documents can be found.
The applicant will normally submit new documents to explain why he /she thinks Breckland Council's decision on the application was incorrect and should be overturned.
We advise that those should be reviewed and commented on in the same manner as our advise for a normal application; only this time you will be sending your comments to the Inspector.
In due course that Inspector will either decide the case and publish the result, or in many cases will first call a public hearing. You will be notified of that if you submitted comments to the appeal. It will most likely be held at Breckland Council's Dereham office. Any member of the public may attend and speaking is not governed by the same procedure as for the Breckland Planning Committee meetings. While every case, and every Inspector is different, in general at the appeal hearing, the Inspector will listen to both the applicant (or their representative) and Breckland Council as they give their reasons for allowing or refusing the appeal. During discussions the Inspector will give members of the public chance to ask questions and make comments. When the meeting finishes the Inspector may choose to visit the site, and will invite all those at the hearing to accompany him if they wish. We advise taking advantage of any such invitations as being at the site itself is a good opportunity to point out particular local features that give cause for concern, which he / she may better appreciate when seen in person rather than just taken from a written comment.
Everyone will then have to wait for the Inspector to publish a decision. If the applicant's appeal is successful that's the end of the process and the application is approved. If the appeal is refused the applicant still has the right to take the case to the Supreme Court, but we have not seen this done in Saham to date.
Finally bear in mind that if an application and an appeal are refused the applicant is still entitled to resubmit a revised application and start the whole process again.
If a planning application is refused the applicant has a right to take it to appeal. However if it is permitted there is no right for you, or others to appeal.
Appeals are heard by someone from the Planning Inspectorate, appointed by the Government. If you made comments on a planning application that then goes to appeal, Breckland Council should write to you to let you know about that and tell you where you can find the appeal documents. Sometimes those are added to Breckland Council's planning website, but in our experience, not always. However in any case there should be reference to an appeal number a planning inspectorate website where the documents can be found.
The applicant will normally submit new documents to explain why he /she thinks Breckland Council's decision on the application was incorrect and should be overturned.
We advise that those should be reviewed and commented on in the same manner as our advise for a normal application; only this time you will be sending your comments to the Inspector.
In due course that Inspector will either decide the case and publish the result, or in many cases will first call a public hearing. You will be notified of that if you submitted comments to the appeal. It will most likely be held at Breckland Council's Dereham office. Any member of the public may attend and speaking is not governed by the same procedure as for the Breckland Planning Committee meetings. While every case, and every Inspector is different, in general at the appeal hearing, the Inspector will listen to both the applicant (or their representative) and Breckland Council as they give their reasons for allowing or refusing the appeal. During discussions the Inspector will give members of the public chance to ask questions and make comments. When the meeting finishes the Inspector may choose to visit the site, and will invite all those at the hearing to accompany him if they wish. We advise taking advantage of any such invitations as being at the site itself is a good opportunity to point out particular local features that give cause for concern, which he / she may better appreciate when seen in person rather than just taken from a written comment.
Everyone will then have to wait for the Inspector to publish a decision. If the applicant's appeal is successful that's the end of the process and the application is approved. If the appeal is refused the applicant still has the right to take the case to the Supreme Court, but we have not seen this done in Saham to date.
Finally bear in mind that if an application and an appeal are refused the applicant is still entitled to resubmit a revised application and start the whole process again.
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