Purpose

The purpose of this guide is to set out our approach to delivering a clear, target-driven process for determining all non-major types of planning application. This approach reflects the changing Government approach to performance targets and the reduction in the Planning Guarantee period to 16 weeks and acknowledges the potential move towards ending the reliance on Extensions of Time to statutory decision-making periods in meeting performance targets, as well as enabling the Development Management service to reach a sustainable position where the full re-introduction of a pre-application advice service can be implemented.
The intention is to provide a set of reasonable expectations for both officers and customers of the service which will pave the way for more consistent and timely decision-making in the future. This will require a clear understanding of the service offer and how this will be achieved through the co-operation of applicants/agents, consultees and officers to operate an efficient development management system with the aim to deliver the good quality and sustainable development needed to support economic growth in a timely fashion.
It is understood that this may represent a change in the way some non-major applications have been treated by the Council in recent years and a transition period will be applied for cases that have been with the Council for some time. Case officers and managers will consider each of these individually but with the objective of reaching a decision as soon as reasonably practical.

Retrospective applications
It will be important to take care with retrospective/part retrospective applications because, in most instances, they will flow from a live investigation that has been carried out by the planning enforcement team in response to a complaint made by a member of the public to the planning department.

Certificate of Lawful Development
Although this Guide deals primarily with planning applications, the same care and cross-team liaison is needed in respect of any applications for a Certificate of Lawful Development involving ‘existing’ development which might also cut across a live planning enforcement investigation.

Stodmarsh
For the avoidance of doubt, schemes affected by nutrient neutrality requirements related to Stodmarsh will continue to be held for a decision unless unacceptable for other reasons.

This Good Practice Guide should be linked to the use of the Council’s planning software system – Arcus Global- by using it to assist with good case management whilst TL/DTLs aim to maintain good performance management