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Greater Cambridge Shared Planning

Step by step guide to permissions

 

 

We've made a short video with tips for your planning application.  

 

Planning applications: Getting it right first time

 Applying through the Planning Portal is the best way to ensure that we get all documents and information we need. 

Preparing an application

To help you have the best chance of success, we offer pre-application advice. There are different levels of free and paid advice that can help reduce errors and delays. Taking pre-application advice does not mean your application will be successful.

Please use our Useful Guide to Planning Permission to find answers to many common questions. The ‘Common Projects’ page on the Planning Portal has information on over 50 typical homeowner building projects. Our website has information on things that are considered when looking at applications. This includes:

Our validation checklists (see below) show the documents and drawings we need. If we do not receive all the information we need, we cannot validate an application.

Please look at the Cambridge City validation checklists and the South Cambridgeshire District Council validation checklists.. 

Applying for permission

Applying through the Planning Portal is the best way to ensure that we get all documents and information we need. Fees for planning applications can be calculated using the Planning Portal’s fees calculator.

Applicants can use an agent (usually a planning consultant or an architect) to do the application for them.

Validating an application

If we do not get all the information we need, or fees, we write to you (or your agent, if you’re using one) to tell you that your application is invalid. You then have 14 days to give us the information we don’t have which will allow us to validate the application. 

New applications, once validated, are normally uploaded to our online planning register within 5 working days.

Public consultation

We put all applications onto our online planning register, where anyone can submit a comment. For more information, consult the statutory publicity requirements.

Read about how you can view and comment on planning applications.

How we reach a planning decision and timescale

Please refer to our planning timescales page.

To reach a decision, we check whether the proposal meets all relevant national policy and local policies and guidance. We take into account all the comments received and consider whether we think the application should be permitted.

If we think an application is likely to be refused, we will contact the applicant and allow them to withdraw it. Minor amendments that do not require re-consultation can occasionally be allowed. For more information, visit amending an application. All new information is uploaded to the online planning register.

Planning decisions can be made by officers or by Planning Committee. Further information can be found on our delegated planning decisions page.

Planning Committee

There are 3 planning committees:

Members of the public can speak in support or opposition to applications, and these views are taken into account when the councillors make their decisions. Applicants within the Cambridge City Council area can also request a pre-application presentation to councillors, which is also open to the public.

Challenging a decision

You can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate if you disagree with a planning decision on your application. You cannot appeal against someone else’s planning application. 

You can appeal against: 

  • your application being refused 
  • a planning condition you don’t agree with 
  • an application which was not decided within the agreed timescale 
  • an enforcement notice 

How to appeal 

For householder applications you have 12 weeks from the date of our decision to appeal. 

For other applications you have six months from the date of our decision to appeal. 

Please refer to our planning timescales page. 

After permission is granted

We upload the decision notice to the online planning register shortly after a decision is made. The decision notice will include all conditions that have been applied to the permission.

Some types of development will be required to make developer contributions (sometimes known as section 106 agreements) before planning permission can be granted.

Discharge of conditions

Most planning permissions may have conditions attached. These could fall into the following categories:

  • actions required within a specific timescale
  • actions that must be done before starting work
  • actions required before
  • other conditions that the development must follow such as ecology or land contamination. 

Applications to discharge conditions should be made via the Planning Portal (login, click the button marked 'Start new application', and then select 'Approval of details reserved by a condition (discharge)') - or forms can be downloaded and then emailed to us. You may have to pay a fee, please refer to the Planning Portal’s Fee Calculator for more information. A decision will usually be made within 8 weeks of submission.

Confirmation of Discharged Conditions

Please use our online form to request confirmation that all conditions have been previously discharged.

Amending a consented scheme

Minor amendments to a consented scheme are known as non-material amendments. These should be submitted to us for approval.

Commencement and construction

Once all of the pre-commencement conditions are approved, construction can start on site. In most cases, works have to begin within 3 years of planning permission being granted.

Building control approval is a separate process and may also be required.

Further details and guidance can be found at the following link Planning Conditions 

Monitoring and Compliance

If a development is not carried out according to the approved drawings and reports, the applicant will be contacted by our Compliance officers and asked to make the changes required, or they may be asked to submit a new application to cover the changes. 

If you are concerned about a suspected breach of planning permission, please visit the Cambridge City planning enforcement webpage or the South Cambridgeshire planning enforcement page where you can find out how to report your concerns.

Section 106 Agreements

Planning obligations often called section 106 agreements, are legally enforceable obligations entered into under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. They are agreements made between a developer and the Local Planning Authority designed to meet the concerns an LPA may have about meeting the cost of providing new infrastructure for an area.

A planning obligation may only constitute a reason for granting planning permission for the development if the obligation is:
1. Necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms.
2. Directly related to the development; and
3. Fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development

Find out more about section 106 agreements

 

Planning applications