Majors and strategic planning advice services
We are very keen to enter into planning performance agreements (PPA) with developers to foster positive joint working between your team and our team and other statutory consultees - find out more.
If you choose not to enter into a PPA, we always encourage developers of strategic or major developments to engage our planning advice service at the earliest possible stage.
Doing so will help to determine:
- Whether or not the council is likely to support an application.
- What package of information is required to submit a planning application.
As part of the discussion will work to provide advice in relation to policy, design quality, technical matters and the level and content of information necessary to support any planning application.
We tailor our approach to each application, which is coordinated through a case officer.
We will engage a variety of teams, depending on the nature of the proposal, and as standard will involve development management, conservation & urban design, planning policy and highways teams. It may also be necessary to involve trees and countryside, legal, environmental health, housing, leisure, the county archaeologist, the Environment Agency, Highways Agency, English Heritage, Sport England etc. We may also engage councillors - find out more, read our protocol for councillor engagement in pre-application planning discussions.
We encourage developers to adopt a similar approach and bring relevant professional disciplines together as a project team. This will vary depending on the complexity of the project but project leadership, planning, design and highways input tend to be the minimum requirement for a coordinated approach.
This approach helps to generate quality developments in line with our policies and proposals.
Planning advice services are given without prejudice, and do not prejudge the determination of a subsequent planning application.
Project types
We approach projects differently, depending on whether they are strategic or major projects:
Strategic projects have one or more of the following characteristics:
- 50 dwellings or more.
- 10,000 square metres of industrial, commercial or retail floorspace.
- wide corporate involvement by Lichfield District Council.
- development of more strategic significance e.g. wider regeneration benefits, new transport infrastructure.
Strategic projects require input from all key parties and may well need to involve other disciplines. We will invite developers who are leading on strategic projects to meet with us as early as possible to discuss:
- Key issues for consideration to be raised early in the process.
- Identify the need to involve other parties not present at the meeting i.e. statutory consultees.
- Engagement with members early in the pre-application process.
- Highlight the need for further information deemed necessary to progress pre-application discussions.
- Provision of written comments/meeting minutes from us prior to any formal planning application submission.
- Discussion and agreement of timetable for pre-application discussions and planning application submission and any requirement for a planning performance agreement (PPA).
Major projects are of a lesser scale than strategic projects but are still defined as major category planning proposals, as set out in the Town and Country Planning General Development Procedure Order 1995, as amended. For example, 10 to 49 dwellings. They also include projects that are recognised as being of a particularly complex or sensitive nature e.g. inappropriate development in the green belt, development affecting SSSIs etc. These schemes may only require the input from a limited number of consultees but would still benefit from a coordinated approach.