Pre-application advice service

Our pre application advice service for householder extensions and alterations resumed on Mon 7 October 2024.

Please take a look at our pre-application advice FAQs section.

From week commencing 7 October a revised fee schedule is in operation.

Please send a completed pre-application advice request form with your enquiry. We will provide advice on the information in this. Any subsequent amended plans or proposals for the same site will be treated as a new enquiry.

Our planning advisors offer advice on whether planning permission is required. The advisors will also signpost enquirers to the planning advice available on the website including validation guidance, planning policies, the Design Guide and other supplementary planning policy documents.

We also have a new Strategic Planning and Minerals & Waste pre-application charging schedule.

Information is available from the Authority that can be accessed to provide guidance on whether permission is required, what needs to be submitted with an application and what policies may be applicable to a proposed development.

• Peak District National Park Authority planning policies
• National planning policy and guidance

How does it work?

1. Please contact our customer service team in the first instance. You can telephone 01629 816 200 or email customer.service@peakdistrict.gov.uk
2. The Customer and Democratic Services Team will register your enquiry and may be able to give you the information you need immediately
3. If your enquiry requires further research, you will be referred to a planning customer adviser who will contact you within three working days
4. The planning customer adviser may decide that further research or information is required at this stage, and if the proposal falls within the categories of the pre-application service being provided, you may be asked to complete a pre-application advice form. We will provide you with guidance notes and details of the appropriate fee for your enquiry. Upon receipt of a completed form and the correct fee your enquiry will be allocated to a planning officer who will contact you within 25 working days.
5. If planning permission is required, we will advise you:
   1. how to submit an application
   2. the type of application that you need to submit
   3. how much it will cost

Will my application be approved?

The pre-application advice that we provide is not legally binding as it does not take into account the views of neighbours, local councils and other public bodies, who we have a statutory requirement to consult.

Final decisions can only be made once an application has been formally submitted and all interested parties have been consulted. Our officers cannot give any guarantees about a decision that will be made on your application.

Confidentiality

We may be asked by members of the public to disclose the details or pre-application advice requests and the advice provided. Such requests are handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Subject to certain exemptions and a public interest test, we must release this information. However, personal data are protected under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018. Please see our Planning and Planning Policy Privacy Notice for more information on how we handle your personal information

If you think any information in your pre-application should be exempt, you should tell us at the time you apply for advice. You should state the reasons why and the time period for which the information should be treated as exempt. If we receive a request for pre-application advice and a subsequent application has not been submitted, we will consider any reasons you have given

We may also treat as exempt from disclosure information which, if disclosed, may prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. This can be particularly relevant at the outset of major applications where exploratory discussion takes place. If the disclosure of such information was to prejudice the process of determining the subsequent planning application, then it may not be disclosed.

Please be aware that any pre-application advice given is likely to be made publicly available as part of the online documents once we receive a related application.