I’ve Received Negative Pre-Application Advice – Should I Give up?

Negative pre-application advice can be disheartening and as can be seen from our earlier blog posts, it’s something clients come to us with all too often. Unfortunately, this can be a product of over worked Planning Teams at your Council not spending sufficient time looking at your proposal to give it proper consideration. However, it’s rarely the end of the road. Sometimes proposals just need simple tweaks to bring them in accordance with Policy, and others your proposal may be perfectly acceptable but is lacking robust Supporting Statements which highlight the benefits and lack of impacts it will bring.

Once again this week, we’ve been successful in having negative pre-application advice overturned. Our client approached us following very negative pre-application for alterations and extensions to their home which adjoins a Grade II listed building. The Council advised that in order to be considered acceptable, the proposals should be significantly reduced and further works to what they considered to be unsympathetic existing extensions should also be proposed.

We disagreed with this assessment and prepared Planning and Heritage Statements to support a full application. The Statements analysed what was significant about the Grade II listed building and its setting, explaining that the proposals were in fact relatively modest and would, at worst, conserve these important elements of the historic asset. While we appreciated that some existing elements of the property were relatively unsympathetic to the character of the listed building, we argued that these were the result of previous poor planning decisions and the LPA was overstepping by demanding alterations to these were included in the application.

Due to the inclusion of these robust supporting statements, the full application was approved without argument or delay from the LPA and our clients can get on with making the improvements to their home.

If you have received negative pre-application advice, there's no need to lose all hope. Our knowledgeable and friendly team are able to assess your proposals and let you know the real chances of success. For more information on Pre-Applications and Listed Buildings and Heritage Assets, please contact us.