Pre-application Advice
Why get it
Pre-application advice helps to:
- Identify whether your proposal requires planning permission or would be allowed under permitted development
- Identify and address any potential problems with your application
- Identify any additional advice you might need
- Identify any specialist advice you might need
- Prevent you submitting an invalid application
We'll discuss your proposal in more depth, including the design and any materials you plan to use, before you submit a planning application.
Types of advice
We offer three types of advice:
- Written advice
- A meeting with planning officers
- A meeting with heritage, landscape and design or tree officers
They all include the option to request follow up advice if required.
Types of development
We'll continue offering advice on four types of development, which will cover a wider range of things:
- Household including things like extensions, garden outbuildings and vehicular access to an off road parking space among other things
- Minor development of one to nine residential units or commercial floor space of up 999 square metres. Also includes changing the use of land for sites less than a hectare in size
- Major development of 10 to 39 residential units or commercial floor space between 1,000 and 4,999 square metres. Also includes changing the use of land for sites between one and five hectares in size
- Large scale development of over 40 residential units, commercial developments with floor space of over 5,000 square metres or a mix of both. Also includes changing the use of land for sites over five hectares in size
We won't offer written advice for large scale developments.
After applying
We'll aim to validate your application within two working days and may contact you if we need more information.
Written advice
Once validated you'll get a written response from your case officer within 20 working days.
Meetings
Once validated, a planning officer will contact you within five working days to arrange a meeting.
We offer on-site meetings but if the applicant can contact the case officer on whether a virtual meeting can be carried out.
You'll then get their written advice within 15 working days of the meeting.
Please be advised that following a period of unprecedented high application submissions, case officers may be unable to meet the target response timescale set out above. If this should occur, the case officer will contact you and arrange an agreeable time frame for completion of the pre-application response. During this period where an extension has been agreed, we would request that applicants do not contact the case officer for an update.
Data protection
Your application will be treated confidentially. However we may have to include it as part of Freedom of Information requests. If this happens we'll contact you beforehand. For more information about Freedom of Information visit our Freedom of Information pages.
Fees
Our fees are based on the scale and complexity of your proposal or query.
For proposals which have a mix of development types, the fee would be based on the greater fee of each type.
All fees include VAT and excluding payments for follow up advice, must be paid up front.
Additional payments for follow up advice can be paid later, if required.
Written advice
Advice about protected trees will in most cases need a site visit. If that is the case, any written advice will be withheld until additional fees covering site visits have been paid.
From planning officers only
| Development | Fee | Follow Up Advice |
|---|---|---|
| Household | £70 | £50 |
| Minor | £250 | £150 |
| Major | £350 | £250 |
| Mixed use where all elements are classed as a minor development | £250 | £150 |
| Mixed use where one or more elements are classed as a major development | £350 | £250 |
Including advice from heritage, landscape and design or tree officers
| Development | Fee | Follow Up Advice |
|---|---|---|
| All | £100 | £75 |
From heritage, landscape and design officers only
| Development | Fee | Follow Up Advice |
|---|---|---|
| Household | £75 | £50 |
| Minor | £200 | £125 |
| Major | £350 | £225 |
From tree officers about protected trees and important hedgerows
| Advice About | Fee | Follow Up Advice |
|---|---|---|
| Trees | £50 | £35 |
| Hedgerows | £50 | £35 |
Meeting with planning officers
Includes the written confirmation from your case officer within 15 working days of the meeting.
For non household developments you can request that a manager or managers from our Development Management, Major Projects or Planning Policy teams attend your meeting.
Our Planning Head of Service, is responsible for all the officers and managers in our Planning section. You can also request that they attend too.
There's an additional fee for each one that attends.
At Maidstone House
From planning officers only
| Development | Officer Rate | Additional Hourly Rate | Manager Rate | Head of Service Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Household | £170 | £50 | - | - |
| Minor | £350 | £100 | £250 | £500 |
| Major | £600 | £125 | £250 | £500 |
| Mixed use where all elements are classed as a minor development | £350 | £100 | £250 | £500 |
| Mixed use where one or more elements are classed as a major development | £600 | £125 | £250 | £500 |
| Large scale development | £825 | £200 | £250 | £500 |
Including advice from heritage, landscape and design or tree officers
| Development | Officer Rate | Additional Hourly Rate | Follow Up Advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | £175 | £50 | £75 |
Follow up written advice
| Development | Fee |
|---|---|
| Household | £75 |
| Minor | £150 |
| Major | £250 |
| Mixed use where all elements are classed as a minor development | £150 |
| Mixed use where one or more elements are classed as a major development | £250 |
| Large scale development | £350 |
On site
From planning officers only
| Development | Officer Rate | Additional Hourly Rate | Manager Rate | Head of Service Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Household | £220 | £50 | - | - |
| Minor | £450 | £100 | £375 | £750 |
| Major | £725 | £125 | £375 | £750 |
| Mixed use where all elements are classed as a minor development | £450 | £100 | £375 | £750 |
| Mixed use where one or more elements are classed as a major development | £725 | £125 | £375 | £750 |
| Large scale development | £950 | £200 | £375 | £750 |
Including advice from heritage, landscape and design or tree officers
| Development | Officer Rate | Additional Hourly Rate | Follow Up Written Advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | £250 | £50 | £75 |
Follow up written advice
| Development | Fee |
|---|---|
| Household | £75 |
| Minor | £150 |
| Major | £250 |
| Mixed use where all elements are classed as a minor development | £150 |
| Mixed use where one or more elements are classed as a major development | £250 |
| Large scale development | £350 |
Meeting with heritage, landscape and design or tree officers
At Maidstone House
From heritage, landscape and design officers only
| Development | Officer Rate | Additional Hourly Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Household | £175 | £50 |
| Minor | £300 | £100 |
| Major | £450 | £150 |
Follow up written advice
| Development | Fee |
|---|---|
| Household | £50 |
| Minor | £125 |
| Major | £225 |
From tree officers about protected trees and important hedgerows
| Advice About | Site Meeting | Additional Hourly Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Trees | £75 | £35 |
| Hedgerows | £75 | £35 |
On site
From heritage, landscape and design officers only
| Development | Officer Rate | Additional Hourly Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Household | £225 | £50 |
| Minor | £400 | £100 |
| Major | £600 | £150 |
Follow up written advice
| Development | Fee |
|---|---|
| Household | £50 |
| Minor | £125 |
| Major | £225 |
From tree officers about protected trees and important hedgerows
| Advice About | Site Meeting | Additional Hourly Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Trees | £75 | £35 |
| Hedgerows | £75 | £35 |
Apply for a pre-application online
You can apply and pay online, using our online form.
Pay for pre application advice post application
You should only use this option if you have already made an application for advice using the option above.
We accept Visa Debit, Visa and Mastercard.
Additional payments for follow up advice
You can pay for any follow up advice using our online form.