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We promote the service of pre-application advice through the mechanism of a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) for large scale development as a proactive and beneficial way of working together to provide high quality development and deliver planning decisions in a timely manner.
A PPA provides a comprehensive service agreeing and defining objectives for the site, timetabling milestones and setting out communication parameters to provide certainty for all parties and it is tailored to the requirements of a particular project. An agreed financial contribution is associated with a PPA to ensure that timely and quality pre-application advice is provided, and delivery milestones achieved. We can only recover the cost of providing the service based on average hourly officer rates, which will form part of our negotiations with you. Pre-application advice charging information is published in Pre-application planning advice for developments which aren't residential extensions or alterations and Pre-application planning advice for extensions / alterations to residential properties and change of use.
The benefits of a PPA are:
- providing certainty for all development partners (the Council, developer, elected members and the community) in terms of an agreed timetable for the handling of complex major projects
- nomination of a project lead on behalf of both the Council and developer to take forward the major development proposals in accordance with the agreed timetable
- providing certainty about the requirements for processing large scale complex applications
- clarifying the means of engagement and consultation with the local community, in accordance with the Statement for Community Involvement
- establishing a clear framework for the delivery of the complex major projects
As part of the PPA, an agreed schedule of meetings will take place to discuss the proposal and to resolve any key planning issues.
The PPA will be signed by both parties and any variations will need to be agreed by both parties during the process. View our PPA standard terms and conditions (PDF 276.9KB)
.Environmental advice on planning applications is supplied by the Environment Agency and Natural England and some advice may be charged for where it is more complicated. The PPA Project Lead will seek to coordinate this advice to ensure that it is integrated with the overall planning assessment.