In todayâs posting IÂ thought it would be beneficial to talk about the planning process. Prime Stables have a great architectural design team and can help you with most general questions. Give them a call on 01403 823 836 and they will be only too pleased to help you.
What Prime Stables will do for you
Unless your new buildings fall under permitted development rights you will probably find that you need to apply for planning permission for your new stables. garaging, hay-barns etc.
For a small fee that is fully refundable against your order, Prime Stables will draw up for you the relevant scaled drawings that you will need for your planning application. They will provide the location plan, a cross section drawing and a full specification.
Elevation Drawings-Prime Stables Premier Range
This will show your Local Authority Planning Department everything they will need to know. The plans will show the size, the design and positioning on your land and how it relates to your neighbours land.
Once an application package has been received by your local planning authority, they check it to ensure it has all the necessary information as part of the package. If they feel it isnât correct for some reason, or they feel that there are errors or omissions, they will not register the application and will contact you by letter, to request that the missing or incorrect information is provided.
Unfortunately if this does happen it can take two or three weeks for the planning authority to notify you of the problem and then you may take another few weeks to gather the missing information, or correct the error. Some of our clients have attempted to make applications themselves, supported by information from their supplier or manufacturer, only to find that the planning authority will not accept the application because of omissions or errors.
Prime Stables have supplied many of their clients architectural plans, all fully completed and ready for a planning application.  As experts in this field, you can be confident of receiving well set out, clear, understandable sets of working drawings.
Once the application has been determined by the planning authority as correct, they will formally register it and validate the application and youâll be formally notified by letter as to when you can expect a decision. Itâs perhaps worth noting here that every planning authority is actually measured on how long it takes to determine a planning application and the target is for applications to take 8 weeks from the date of validation to the decision being made.
Part of the planning procedure involves consulting with your immediate neighbours and other interested parties, in general terms, this means anybody that the planning authority feels is âaffectedâ by your proposal. So as well as your neighbours, this list of consultees may also include the environment agency, your local parish council, your local councillors, the highway department of the local council, conservation officerâs of the local council, your local environmental health department â the number and type of consultees will depend entirely upon what your proposal is for and the planning authorityâs view about itâs impact.
Generally speaking private equestrian planning applications are dealt with under delegated powers, where a planning officer will visit the application site and make an appraisal and assessment of the application by comparing it against both the local and national policies they feel are relevant, they will also take any comments from the consultees into consideration as part of this process. Itâs quite unusual for a planning officer to visit the site before the consultation period is complete, so itâs quite common that the first time a planning officer seeâs the application site, to be in week 5 or 6 of the 8 week application period.
Sometimes a proposal cannot be dealt with under delegated powers and if that is the case, it will be referred to the planning authorityâs development control or planning committee, for them to determine. There are a number of reasons why this may happen, the most common ones being that the scale of the proposal is too large to be dealt with under delegated powers, or maybe a large number of complaints have been received, or perhaps one of the local councillorsâ feels that it should be dealt with by the committee, rather than the planning officer. If an application is referred to the committee, then a planning officer will still carry out the appraisal and assessment of the application and put a report together for the committee to refer to.
Because most planning decisions are about balancing different, and often conflicting considerations there will inevitably be arguments for and against a proposal. In making the decision, a judgement has to be made as to which argument outweighs the other. If the planning officer feels that changes need to be made to the application to make it more acceptable, Â then in theory, they should contact you to discuss what they feel may need changing; in practice, because of the time issues involved (remember the 8 week target date), they donât often do this, they simply refuse it and give you the reasons why they felt the need to refuse it.
Whilst we are more than happy to make you fully aware of the planning procedures so that you can deal with the planning authority yourself, more often than not with equestrian planning applications we would recommend that you use a planning consultant for the application who will deal with the relevant planning officer on your behalf and present your application in a full and professional manner, giving your application the best chance for success.
You planning consultant will attempt to get the planning officers view about the application, before the end of the 8 week application period. That way if they do have an issue with an application, it can be openly discussed and hopefully resolved between all parties, so that a potential refusal is turned into a successful planning approval.
If you do find yourself in the unfortunate position of having your application refused, then you do still have rights of appeal against the decision, through the planning inspectorate. Itâs worth noting that only the applicant has any rights of appeal against a planning decision, so if your planning application is successful nobody has the right to appeal against it in a further attempt to get it refused.
Finally, if all else fails, you can always install mobile field shelters, these do not require any planning permission and can be a quick instant answer to many equestrian needs.
Mobile Field Shelters Make Great Temporary Stabling Whilst Waiting For A More Substantial Stable Block To Have Planning Permission Passed
I trust you now know how to proceed with a planning application. If I have not answered all of your questions on the subject, post your questions below and I will do my utmost to answer you. Alternatively contact Prime Stables direct.
The Stable Doctor
https://primestables.co.uk/news
Advice is given without legal responsibility
