Planning pre-application advice

By doing some work before you ask for advice you can find out what the Council’s policies are and take them into account in your plans.

Before asking for advice you will find it helpful to:

• Undertake some initial research by using information available in our Planning section.
• Think about who might be affected by what you want to do and talk to them about your plans.

When asking for our advice the more information you give us about what you want to do, the more valuable and precise our advice will be.

We will always need the following information to provide you advice:

• A clear address for the site, preferably with the postcode.
• A brief description of what you want to do, for example a “new dwelling”.
• Plans of what you want to do, drawn to metric scale.
• A fee to cover our costs of providing you advice.
• A location plan or map with your site clearly outlined (our preference is for this to be at a scale of 1:1250 or 1:2500 with a North point shown). The map submitted must contain the Ordnance Survey Copyright disclaimer and the mapping data (licence number).

To get the best out of the service you can also send us:

• A scaled plan showing where your proposal would be on the site.
• Photographs showing the key features of the site with the directions shown on the plan above.
• For sites in areas liable to flood or the Green Belt, existing and proposed scaled floor plans of the existing and proposed buildings and outbuildings such as garages.

Note: that pre-application advice requests and the advice we have provided may be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environmental Information Regulations 2004 If you want your request to be confidential, please tell us in writing, providing the reasons, at the time of your request.

We will not respond at the time of your request but will take it into account when deciding whether to release information.

You can send us this information by email to planning@rbwm.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can send it by post or deliver it in person.