Pre-application advice for planning, highways and drainage

We will require a minimum level of descriptive and illustrative material to assess your pre-application planning, highways and drainage advice request. It should be proportionate to the scale and stage of development, of the proposals.

The cumulative size of the electronic documents submitted should not exceed 20 Mb; otherwise the authority may not be able to forward the documents to consultees effectively.

Major proposals

For all major proposals we will require:

• The relevant fee or receipt of payment (contact will be made for payment upon initial review of documents)
• Completed application form
• A location plan identifying the site and its boundaries
• An indicative site layout plan

Other documents which would be useful in ensuring a robust response include:

• Continuation of the full description of the proposed works
• Other illustrative material, if appropriate, such as sketch drawings and models to describe the proposal. Where known these should include floor plans, elevations, contextual street scenes, access, servicing, parking arrangements, crime prevention measures, means of escape, the initial architectural approach and materials to be used
• A draft planning statement (if available)
• Details of the ownership of the land within the site
• Visual materials that will help us to understand the existing site or building better (for example photographs or models)
• Photographs of the immediate surroundings
• Details of the existing floor space, broken down, and how it is used at the moment
• A breakdown of affordable housing/ private housing for residential schemes
• Details of the ownership of the land within the site
• A plan showing the existing site area, existing buildings and other features (for example the location of trees)

Specialist advice

This is charged as an additional fee, see our charging schedule.

If, following receipt of our pre application response, you require specialist advice from any other relevant disciplines, you are advised to submit as much detail as possible to receive an informative response. This is in addition to the major proposal requirements listed above. The following lists are provided as a guide:

Highways

• Parking Survey
• Stage 1 road safety audit of proposed highway works and designer's response with amended plans.
• Transport assessment scope.
• Reference to supporting national, regional and local Planning documents and policies.
• Schedule of existing uses, including planning history with reference numbers.
• Parking Strategy, including provision of parking for all forms of transport.
• Relevant traffic data collected to date.
• Summary of reasons supporting site access/highway works proposals, including plan (scale 1:200 or similar) with achievable visibility splays indicated.
• Location plan of key services indicating locations of education, employment, food retail, non-food retail and health care facilities.

Drainage

• Suitably scaled flood risk assessment.
• Overall drainage strategy showing sub-catchments.
• Proposed drainage, including adoptions plan, longsections, attenuation details, flow control details and hydraulic calculations.
• River, surface water and reservoir flood mapping, as produced by the Environment Agency.
• Existing and proposed extents of Public Highway, including gully locations and levels.
• Existing drainage layout, including land drainage, private sewers, public sewers and water courses.
• Proposed external levels for comparison against top water level of the proposed attenuation.
• Ground investigation report including infiltration testing to confirm the suitability of infiltration drainage systems.
• Adoption and maintenance plan.

Other specialisms

Examples of documents for other specialisms that would be useful (but not required) to provide a specialist response

• Arboricultural – Tree survey, annotated photographs of trees including description of works proposed to trees, plan indicating the location of the trees within the site.
• Environmental Protection (Noise) - Noise report/impact assessment.
• Environmental Protection (Contamination) - Contamination land assessment, method statement.
• Environmental Protection (Pollution) - Air quality impact assessment, method statement, flue and ventilation extraction details.
• Urban Design - Masterplan, schedule of development, tall buildings survey, planning statement.
• Ecology/ Biodiversity - Biodiversity and ecological survey and report, biodiversity impact assessment.
• Heritage/Conservation - Photographic record, heritage statement, schedule of works, structural survey, archaeological assessment.