Brian Whiteley MRTPI is a Planning Advisor for Planning Aid England (PAE). PAE volunteers provide an Advice Service, giving professional advice by email on a whole range of planning questions from the public. These show that people want to be more actively involved with the planning system. But how do they do that?
Firstly, what is the planning system?
At the core of England’s system is the “Local Plan”, a land-use plan each local authority must draw up for their area and keep updated. Briefly, these contain:
- maps showing where major developments are proposed over the next 10-15 years in the plan area and where major land use designations are (e.g. for large housing sites, conservation areas, Green Belt land or main employment or retailing areas); and
- “development management” policies to guide future decisions on planning applications.
Local authorities implement their plans primarily by making decisions on planning applications - and if necessary defending these at subsequent appeals - based on the proposals and policies their plans contain and taking account of the Planning Acts, related legislation (e.g. to do with planning Use Classes or Permitted Development rights) and the Government’s policies in its National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
The layers of the planning system at national, local and neighbourhood levels can be summarised in this diagram:
So, to become more involved with planning in your area, you need to be familiar with:
- what is in the existing NPPF and Local Plan (and in any Neighbourhood Plan) for your area; and
- where to find information on planning applications of interest to you, and to know how to be able to comment on them.
Local Plans
The PAE website contains full information on the Local Plan system.
How to influence the shaping of a local plan in your area
A council’s “Local Development Scheme” will show key stages for the preparation of its local plan, importantly when main public consultation stages will be held and when a public examination before an independent planning inspector is scheduled. By taking part in these, all are opportunities for you to be directly involved in influencing how the plan takes shape.
Supporting information
Supporting information used to draw up the plan will be set out in an “evidence base”. This might include information ranging from:
- assessments of local housing or commercial / employment floorspace needs over the next 5-10 years,
- mapped information on agricultural land quality, townscape or landscape quality, flood risk areas, local important environmental areas or designations, or schedules of such assets as local listed buildings.
All will be intended to support the authority’s case for its policies and proposals at an eventual public examination held by an independent planning inspector. Once a plan is finally adopted, the evidence base will remain important in helping to inform subsequent decisions on planning applications and appeals.
Supplementary Planning Documents / Statements of Community Involvement / Authority Monitoring Reports
The PAE website includes a summary on these associated Local Plan documents which local planning authorities prepare.
Planning applications and appeals
How to find a planning application
Local authority planning web pages allow you to search to find out details about a planning application. Ideally, you will do this by using the planning application number. There is no standard format for these; authorities might use something like this: APP/2025/20986/FUL or this: LBC/3472/2025. If you do not know the application number, you may have options of searching by a full or partial address or by a ward or part of an authority’s area. If you don’t know the local authority area but have a postcode here is a useful tool at which might help you find an application.
Additionally, authorities often publish weekly lists of applications recently received – which might also help you to find a particular proposal.
Full details about the planning application process, including about the information required to be submitted, are available on the PAE website.
How to influence planning decisions
If you wish to comment on an application – perhaps to support or object to it – there will be a link on the council’s planning web page to allow you to do that. Before sending in your comments, you might find it helpful to contact the case officer to ask for their view on the likelihood of an approval or refusal being recommended. Bear in mind that they may not be able to offer an opinion, perhaps if negotiations are still in hand with an applicant, for example.
Material planning considerations
If you are making comments, also bear in mind that any planning decision will depend on what in planning jargon are known as “material planning considerations” – i.e. matters or planning policies which legislation and the courts have determined should be taken into account when deciding an application. The PAE website contains further details on what are and are not material considerations.
Other support
Before sending in your comments you and your neighbours might wish to co-ordinate your responses to an application. You might also consider approaching your local Councillor for their advice and help in sending in your comments. They might be able to intervene on your behalf for example, to obtain further information from the local authority regarding a particular application.
A checklist to finish with
When commenting on planning applications:
- Start with the local plan and NPPF – why does it comply in your opinion or not?
- If opposing, articulate how the adverse impacts of the proposed development outweigh the benefits
- If opposing, state how it is not sustainable development (as in the NPPF)
- Are your objections material planning considerations?
- Could conditions be put on a planning decision to overcome your concerns?
- Could an application be amended to overcome your objections?
- Be objective – do not include personal issues (loss of a view, impact on house values)
About appeals
if you make comments on a planning application during the consultation period, should the application later go on to an appeal, these will be passed on to the planning inspector. Information on what happens during the appeal process (and how you can be involved in that as an interested `third party`) is available on the PAE website.
