Jump to: Planning advice for householders and small businesses – Pre-application meeting or written advice – Planning performance agreements

Planning advice for householders and small businesses

For householder and small business queries, we offer 15 minutes of free advice and guidance with a planning officer via our Householder and Small Business Planning Advice service.

This should be used for advice in the very early stages of your planning application (typically prior to having had plans drawn up), or where you have a question around a particular aspect of planning, including queries related to permitted development.

Appointments for the service are limited and typically fill up quickly. Please check our general guidance on household planning to find answers to many common questions that might result in you not needing to make an appointment. In addition, the Planning Portal’s common projects webpage has information on more than 50 typical homeowner building projects.

Please do not use the appointment to discuss multiple queries at the same or different locations – in order to keep to 15 minutes, we will only deal with the query entered into the appointment booking form.

The service can advise on:

• Simple extensions – typically these would be for a single storey or no bigger than 40m². For larger, more complex or multiple extensions at the same property, use our pre-application service (see below)
• Construction of new garages or outbuildings, or conversions of existing garages or outbuildings
• Construction of:
  • Conservatories or porches
  • Private swimming pools
  • Dormer windows
  • Roof alterations
  • Solar panels and other renewable energy measures such as air source heat pumps
  • Cycle shelters
• Queries about garden or boundary walls and fences
• Conditions that have been attached to a householder planning permission
• Advice on old planning applications or permitted development (including properties in conservation areas)
• For small businesses, you can use the Householder and Small Business Planning Advice service for business development queries, including a change of use or extension for business premises up to 100m². For larger businesses, use our pre-application service (see below)

For any alterations or extensions to a council-owned property, including garden or boundary walls or fences, you will first need permission from our Housing officers before contacting the Householder and Small Business Planning Advice service.

After your call, if you feel you still need further advice, then please make a further appointment – the planning officer may be a different individual but will have access to any notes that were made during the first call. However, if we think that you are looking for a level of detail that is best dealt with by our pre-application service we will direct you to that service instead.

You should not use the Householder and Small Business Planning Advice service for the following:

• How householder planning applications are assessed
  • Read ‘how we reach a decision’ on our step-by-step guide to planning permission
• Multiple extensions to the same property – use our pre-application service (see below)
• New or altered vehicle access – refer to our general guidance on household planning
• Any changes to a listed building – use our pre-application service (see below)
  • Find out more about listed buildings on our historic environment webpage
• Business and residential combined developments – use our pre-application service (see below)
• Anything related to trees or tree protection orders
• Assistance with using the Planning Portal – contact the Planning Portal at  support@planningportal.co.uk or on 0333 323 4589

We cannot:

• provide an opinion on whether planning permission would or would not be granted
• discuss the technical merits of applications, refusals or appeals
• agree to any minor amendments to planning permissions
• discuss enforcement enquiries
• deal with the discharge of any planning conditions on a decision notice
• take payment for any planning service
• provide any written response or documentation

Any advice provided is informal and provided in good faith, based on the information and evidence made available at the time. Such advice is the individual opinion of the officer and is not a formal decision of the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning service.

Pre-application meeting or written advice

We offer various kinds of paid-for pre-application advice, which can save time and money for anyone considering submitting a planning application. Options range from a 30-minute video call consultation, through to meetings and written responses from specialist officers. This service can:

• identify the main planning issues for your proposal and how you could address them
• tell you what you need to submit with your planning application
• speed up the overall process of getting planning permission
• reduce the costs of your eventual application
• avoid applications getting rejected by us due to insufficient information or applying for the wrong type of permission.

Our pre-application advice service cannot guarantee that any subsequent application will be approved, but it will give you an indication of how successful it may be.

How long does it take?

After you have submitted and paid for your request for pre-application advice, we will aim to acknowledge that we have received your application and tell you which case officer has been allocated to your case, within 10 workings days.

When your pre-application has been acknowledged, we will aim to provide a written response within 4 weeks for householder advice and 6 weeks for other types of advice.

How much does it cost?

Fees are shown in the different categories below.

Fees are waived for small charities and applications specifically required for the needs of disabled persons.

Payment is taken online via a credit or debit card.

Apply for pre-application advice

You will need to submit, at minimum, the following information so we understand your proposal and can assign it to someone who can help:

• site location plan
• payment

The forms below replace our previous printable application forms, which we no longer accept.

Pre-application follow up

Pre-application follow-up advice is only available after a pre-application written response has been issued and in agreement with the planning officer assigned to your case. The follow-up advice includes a one hour meeting with the Planning Officer to clarify points raised within the written response or to discuss only very minor alterations to a scheme.

Pay for your pre-application follow up

Planning performance agreements

As part of its enhanced planning service, the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service offers the opportunity for applicants to enter into a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA).

This sits alongside our existing pre-application advice service. A PPA is a project management tool which allows all parties to agree timescales, actions and resources for handling planning applications. To find out more please visit the Planning Performance Agreements webpage on the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service website.