Minor development advice

Minor development pre-application advice currently unavailable

We are able to provide pre-application advice for listed building consent applications.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we are not in a position to provide minor development pre-application advice for all other development proposals at the present time and as a result are unable to answer your enquiry.

We are taking steps to rectify the situation and aiming to re-introducing our minor development pre-application advice service in October 2023.

In the meantime, should you still require pre-application advice in relation to your scheme, you may wish to contact a planning consultant who may be able to assist you.

A list of planning consultants can be obtained from the Royal Town Planning Institute website.

If your query seeks to establish whether your proposed development requires planning permission, advice and guidance can be obtained from the following organisations:

If your enquiry relates to householder development, the Planning Portal also provides the below Interactive guides.

Please accept our apologies for the temporary suspension of the minor development pre-application advice service.

What constitutes minor development?

Our pre application advice service provides an opportunity to discuss your proposed scheme and get clear written expert advice from a planning officer before you submit an application.

extensions and alterations to a house;
advertisements;
telecommunications;
agricultural development;
extensions and alterations to listed buildings;
1-9 dwellings;
all other minor developments of less than 1,000sqm floor space or on sites of less than 1 hectare. For example retail, commercial, industrial, leisure, education, recreation and car parking.

How do I request pre-application advice?

This service is currently only available for listed building consent applications.

Pre-application enquiries will not be processed without the appropriate fee, which are set out below.

Requests for advice should be made by completing the pre-application advice form.

Request minor development advice

What happens next?

Once your request for advice has been received and checked, we aim to contact you within 5 working days to acknowledge receipt of your form and inform you of the name of the planning officer dealing with your request.

A planning officer of the council will consider your proposal and, with advice from relevant consultees if necessary, provide you with an indication of whether your proposal is likely to receive planning permission.

The planning officer will also advise you if further information is required to support any future planning applications that you may submit.

How do I benefit from pre-application advice?

It provides early guidance on the planning policies relevant to your development and helps you to understand how these policies apply to your proposal.
It can identify at an early stage if your proposed development will require the need for specialist information such as a tree survey, flood risk assessment, ecological assessment.
It enables proposals to be changed and potential problems overcome before an application is submitted, saving time during the application process.
It will ensure you know what information you need to submit with the application, thereby making sure it can be registered and validated on submission to avoid delay.
It can give a greater degree of certainty of whether your application is likely to be successful.

What if my proposals are confidential?

The service respects confidentiality and will not release any details, either internally or externally, unless it is necessary to do so in order to assist you. If this is the case, information will only be released with your agreement.

How much will it cost?

From 1 April 2023, the following Minor Development advice service charges will come into effect:

Householder - (extensions and alterations within the boundary of a house) - £60
Advertisements - £60
Telecommunications development - £60
Agricultural developments - £60
Listed buildings - £100
0 - 4 residential units - £250*
5 - 9 residential units - £500*
All other minor development - £500
- All other development not falling into the above categories
- Involving development of less than 1,000sqm floor space or on sites of less than 1 hectare. For example retail, commercial, industrial, leisure, education, recreation or car parks.

All costs are VAT inclusive.

* Where the development proposal is in outline, an indication of the number of dwellings likely to be accommodated on the site must be provided in order to calculate the fee.

Please note that Lancashire County Council provides its own pre-application advice service, as the Highways Authority. Should you require pre-application advice on highways matters, please contact Lancashire County Council Highways separately. For more information please visit LCC - pre planning application highways advice service.

Are there any proposals that would be exempt from paying a fee?

Charges will not be made for development proposals which:

are submitted by charitable organisations; or
are for alterations or extensions to a dwelling for the benefit of a registered disabled person or for operations providing a means of access for disabled persons to a building to which members of the public are admitted.

What you should provide?

The following information and plans should be submitted with the pre-application advice form. If insufficient information is submitted we may be unable to provide pre-application advice.

As a minimum please include:

Site location plan at a scale of 1:1250 or 1:2500 and the site of the proposed development should be identified by drawing a red line around the site.
Details of current use and site history if known (this is unlikely to be required for extensions and alterations to a house)
Details of the type of the development proposed
Photographs of the site and its surroundings
Drawings of the proposed development, such as floor plans and elevations, that show measurements to indicate the scale and height of development proposed and a site plan to show the layout of the site.

What Service can you expect?

Once a request is received it will be assigned to a planning officer. The planning officer will aim to provide you with a written response within 21 working days of receipt of the request and relevant payment.

The planning officer will only visit the site if he or she considers it necessary. Meetings will only be arranged if the planning officer considers a meeting is necessary in order to provide the pre-application advance.

You should be aware that any advice given by the Council in relation to pre-application enquiries will be based on the officer's professional judgement and without prejudice to the formal consideration of any subsequent planning application.

Favourable pre-application advice cannot guarantee that a subsequent planning application will be successful. This is because when we receive a formal application it will be subject to further consultation and publicity which may raise other issues.

You should also bear in mind that any subsequent changes to planning legislation or planning policies may affect the advice given. The weight that can be given to pre-application advice will therefore diminish over time.

What happens next?

Following the receipt of advice you can submit a planning application.

In certain cases you may need to amend your proposal. If material amendments are required we will probably have to repeat the above process when you send us your revised proposal.

If necessary we may suggest that you contact relevant consultees to talk to separately in relation to specific issues.