Oxford City Council

Planning and Listed Buildings

Pre-application Advice Service Protocol
On 1 November 2015 the process for planning pre-application advice changed. A
new fee structure was introduced for pre application advice with respect to works
and development that require planning permission and/or listed building consent.

If you are considering carrying out works that require planning permission or listed
building consent, we can provide you with advice and information on:-

 the relevant policies against which your proposal will be assessed;

 who to engage with, including in the local community, as you develop your
proposal;
 the merits of the development proposed, including providing an overall
assessment of the changes of the likelihood of your proposal receiving
officers’ support and;
 the process involved

Benefits of using the pre-application service

It will help you identify at an early stage:-

 any ‘show stopping’ issues;

 ways to gather relevant third party views, to enable you to take them into
account in developing your proposals;
 any key issues and concerns that you will need to address; and
 the information you will need to submit with your application

Pre-application advice will help you:-

Overcome problems early;
Avoid unnecessary work, effort and costs;
Speed up the application process; and
Improve your chances of a positive outcome

How to apply for Pre-application Advice

Appendices 1 and 2 set out the types of development for which fees are charged for
pre-application advice, the level of service which we can provide, and the scale of
fees
To request pre-application advice you need to complete and submit a request form
for Pre-application Advice, together with the appropriate fee

Forms can be printed, completed, scanned and returned to planning@oxford.gov.uk,

post to Pre-application Service to Planning Service, St. Aldate’s Chambers, 109-113
St. Aldates, OX1 1DS, or handed in person at the Customer Service Centre, St.
Aldate’s Chambers. Fees can be paid by cheque, made payable to Oxford City
Council, or by credit or debit card over the phone on 01865 249811.

What you need to provide with your application

The form asks for some basic questions about the property, what you are hoping to
achieve and a detailed description of the proposal. In addition, please provide as
much additional information as possible in the form of sketch plans, scaled drawings
and photographs as this will help the case officer to provide an appropriate and
informed response.

The service we will provide

You may request one of the following options:-

a) A written response/s
b) A meeting or meetings and verbal advice; or
c) Both meeting/s and written response/s

Please note that the Council reserves the right to decline holding meetings whether
at the office or on site, where officers consider this to be unnecessary and/or
inappropriate.

Meetings

Once we receive your formal request for a meeting and all the relevant/necessary
information, the case officer will normally seek to arrange a meeting to take place
within three weeks, although this may not always be possible.

Meetings will usually be held at the Council offices, unless a specific site meeting
has been requested (at an additional cost, see Appendix 3). As a guide, meetings
should not normally last more than 2 hours for large scale proposals, 1.5 hours for
medium scale proposals and 1 hour for small scale proposals. The case officer may
visit the site at pre-application stage if appropriate.

The nature of the discussion would depend on the detail and relevance of the
information you supplied in advance. You will have the chance to explain your
proposal to the officer(s). In the event that they consider your proposal to be a “non-
starter”, they will advise you so, outlining the main reasons.

Where there is merit to pursue your proposal further, the officer(s) will provide an
initial verbal response, identifying the main issues and relevant policies, including
any issues that may have been raised by other relevant specialist officers at this
initial stage. The officer(s) will mention any concerns they may have about the
proposals at this stage. If appropriate, they may suggest possible amendments to
overcome them.

The officer(s) will also advise on:-

 any publicity and consultation that you would ideally undertake at this stage,
seeking views of neighbours and third parties, so that these can be taken into
account in formulating your application submission;
 when and how to keep local Members informed on larger/sensitive schemes;
 any additional reports/impact studies, which you may need to prepare
 the involvement of specialist professionals that you need in working up your
proposals;
 the need and appropriateness of any further pre-application meetings and
officer(s) written response and agree a timetable.

Written responses

We will normally seek to prepare our written response within two weeks of the initial
meeting, but we may have to agree a longer response period, depending on the
complexity of the case and comments sought from specialist officers and other
parties.

Where you have requested only written advice, we shall seek to assess your
proposal and respond to you within four weeks of receiving all the relevant
information and fee. However, where specialist input is required and necessary, this
may take longer.

The officer’s written response will seek to set out:-

 the relevant policies, planning history and a summary of any relevant third
part of consultee comments that may have been received;
 the relevant issues, officers’ concerns and an overall summary assessment of
your proposal;
 if appropriate, the amendments and publicity that you should ideally carry out
prior to the submission of an application.
  an indication of the information and accompanying reports/statements that
you will need to include with your submission, to asset you with preparing a
valid planning application. This would be based on the published list of
validation criteria.

The officer’s written response, where it is subject to a fee, will be checked and
cleared by another senior level officer before it is sent out.

The related application for planning permission and listed building consent

All pre-application advice is informal officer advice, provided on a without prejudice

basis and cannot bind the Council’s decision on a related planning or listed building
application in any way. New issues may arise during the application stage as a
result of (additional) consultation, site visits or other information that may come to
light. Pre-application advice does not guarantee a positive outcome of your formal
application(s). This service provides you with information to help you prepare an
application that is more likely to succeed. We make every effort to provide accurate
information based on the information you provide. Each proposal is considered on
its own merits.

We will continue with our existing practice of encouraging pre-application

discussions and assessing and determing applications on the basis of the
information provided at validation stage. We will not normally old meetings with
applicants during the application stage and any amendments submitt4d during the
application stage would normally only be accepted if they do not delay the decision
beyond the target date. The above would not however, apply to major applications
that are subject to planning performance agrees (PPAs) or any application that is
subject to bespoke extensions of time.

Confidentiality issues and Freedom of Information

Customers normally expect the details of pre-application discussions to be on a

confidential basis and officers aim to provide advice on this basis and it is not
published on the Council’s website. However, under the provision of the Freedom of
information Act and/or the Environmental Information regulations, third parties can
ask to see pre-application documentation and the Council has to decide whether
information is exempt from disclosure. In order to assist the Council in dealing with
such requests, applicants/agents are encouraged to submit in writing the specific
reasons why in their view documentation relating to their pre-application discussions
should remain confidential and not be disclosed to third parties.
Terms and Conditions

Requests for pre-application advice service will not be considered until full payment
has been received and the information requested has been provided.

Applicants will be informed of any additional charges before they are incurred, and
will be expected to have paid the appropriate fees before the service is provided.

Any follow up request for advice will incur a further fee.

Subsequent variation to the proposed scheme will be treated as a new enqwu8ry

and subject to additional charges.

Similarly any additional enquires by the same applicant at the same property, or at
other properties will be treated as a new enquiry and subject to a charge(s).

It is at the discretion of the Council to identify the case officer who will be responsible
for dealing with each request for pre-application advice. The Council will make every
effort to allocate an officer of appropriate seniority and experience to each case.
Wherever possible, the same officer will deal with any subsequent application for
planning permission or listed building consent.

If a meeting is cancelled by the applicant, charges may be made for any pre-meeting
enquiries or other investigations that Council officers may have carried out.

Fees can only be refunded if paid in respect of either a request where the Council
declines to provide advice or where more than the correct fee has been paid.

Enquiries that require both planning and listed building pre-application advice will be
charged both fees. Similarly if the proposal raises issues that need to be addressed
by specialists, additional fees will be charged on an hourly rate basis as set out in
Appendix 2.

Pre-application advice free-of-charge

If you require general advice that can be dealt with via a simple phone call or email
please feel free to contact us on 01865 249811 or at planning@oxford.gov.uk

We normally provide a drop-in “duty officer” service between 10.00 and 13.00 hrs on
office working days free of charge.

 in addition we provide free advice in relation to some specific forms of

development; advertisements that are specific to the actual premises they are
displayed on
  a single annual telecoms roll-out plan meeting with all operators together
 pre-application discussions resulting directly from enforcement investigations
 public art
 proposed works related to the Equalities Act
 third parties, at our discretion, depending on the amount of officer time
required

Please note that we do not carry out “permitted development checks”. If you wish for
the Council’s formal confirmation of whether your proposal is “permitted
development”, then you need to apply for a “Certificate of Lawfulness of Proposed
use of Development”

APPENDIX1

Size of Development Thresholds for fee categories

For the purposes of calculating the appropriate fee, proposals fall into one of the
following four categories, which correspond to the following size thresholds:-

1. Large scale proposals: over 25 residential units, or over 2000m2 of floor

space, or over 1ha of site area, or over 50 student rooms
2. Medium scale proposals: between 6 & 25 residential units, or 500m2 &
2000m2 of floor space, or 0.2 & 1ha of site area, or 10 & 50 student rooms
3. Small Scale proposals: less than 5 residential units, or less than 500m2 of
floor space, or less than 0.2ha of site area, or less than 10 student rooms;
also proposals for operational works not creating new floor space such as
shop fronts, general commercial advertising not relating to its premises (such
as poster panels) and telecommunications proposals that would require either
a planning or a prior approval application
4. Householders: householder extensions and alterations that need permission
(either to houses or individual flats) but this does not apply to flat conversions
Mixed development proposals are treated according to their cumulative size

Mixed development proposals are treated according to their cumulative size

APPENDIX 2

Fee Schedule for Pre-Application Advice Service for Planning and Listed Buildings
(from 1st April 2019)

Size of proposal Service Fee Fee incl. Vat

(20%)
Large Scale Meeting £780 £936

Written response £388 £465.60

Meeting & written £1,168 £1,401.6

response

Medium Scale Meeting £593 £711.6

Written response £294 £352.8

Meeting & written £887 £1064.4

response

Small scale Meeting £372 £446.4

Written response £184 £220.8

Meeting & written £556 £667.2

response

Householder Meeting £92 £110.4

developments
Written response £46 £55.2

Meeting & written £138 £165.6

response

Listed buildings Meeting £361 £433.2

non-householder
Written response £184 £220.8

Meeting & written £545 £654

response

Listed buildings - Meeting £92 £110.4

householder
Written response £46 £55.2

Meeting & written £138 £165.6

response
If your planning pre-application request requires the involvement and advice of other
specialist officers of the City Council (eg. Heritage, design, planning policy,
biodiversity, trees, landscaping, archaeology, land contamination, noise, air quality,
sustainability, viability etc.), this will be charged as additional to the flat rate fees set
out in the above schedule, at the hourly rate of £88/hour per specialist officer
(inclusive of VAT). All meetings are to take place at the Council offices. Where you
require a site meeting, this will incur an additional cost at the rate of £88/hour
(inclusive of VAT).

External consultees and other specialists not part of the City Council (eg. County
Highways, Environment Agency, etc) may also need to be involved in providing pre-
application advice. This may be subject to additional fees and charges payable
directly to them.

Where applicants are pursuing one or more proposals, which involve a protracted
series of multiple meetings and/or multiple written pieces of advice, the Council may
negotiate bespoke rates or “season tickets”, as appropriate, on a case-by-case
basis.

In respect of large, complex development proposals with prolonged planned

timescales the Council will negotiate Planning Performance Agreements with
bespoke resourcing and fees on a case by case basis, covering all stages of the
project from pre-application through to application and post-application conditions
compliance.

Last updated March 2019