What's New?

We like to keep you informed of changes affecting Planning:

Revocation of the Regional Spatial Strategy

On the 6th July 2010 the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government revoked the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) for the North West. This means that the RSS now no longer forms part of the Statutory Development Plan for Pendle and the policies contained in this document will no longer be used when determining planning applications or preparing the Local Development Framework. Click here to view the documents that make up the Development Plan for Pendle.

Charging for Pre-Application advice

With effect from 1st April 2010 we have introduced a system of charges for pre-application advice. This only applies to "major" applications. There will continue to be no charge for pre-application advice for the vast majority of proposed developments, including minor and householder proposals. We have produced an advice note which explains the new charging system, sets out the charges and advises how they are payable.

New Regulations relating to extensions to the time limits for implementing existing planning permissions and making non-material amendments.

New provisions are to come into effect on the 1st October. This will allow planning permissions which are about to lapse to be kept alive via a simplified application procedure.

It will also be possible to apply to make non-material amendments to existing planning permissions.

The Government is preparing guidance on these changes. In the meantime it advises referring to the draft guidance for time limit changes and amendments.

Real time information

To help keep you up-to-date on the progress of our Development Plan Documents we are providing some real time information. The following document provides information on the next consultation stages and dates for all the DPDs we are preparing in Pendle:

Real time progress on Development Plan Documents

Two New Policy Documents

Pendle Council formally adopted two new planning policy documents on Thursday 10th December. These are:

• The Design Principles Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) and;
• The Interim Housing Policy

Developers will need to have regard to the information and requirements contained in these documents.