We give 21 days from the date on a consultation letter, or the site notice for interested parties to make a comment on a planning application. If you have not had a letter, you can check the consultation end date online.
Once the 21 day consultation period has passed, a case officer will assess the responses before writing up a report with a recommendation. Comments can still be received after the 21 day consultation period and will be included in the officer’s assessment, provided the decision has not been issued. As this can happen any time after the 21 days, you are encouraged to submit any comments within the consultation period.
How to make a comment on a planning application
You can make a comment:
Once we receive your comments
We are legally obliged to ensure that all responses to planning applications are made public. We do this by placing your comments on our website, including your name and address. Only signatures, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses will be redacted. Comments will be removed 6 months after the application has been determined.
We will not acknowledge receipt of your comments as all responses are available to view on our website. If you do not see your response on the website within 5 working days of sending it to us, please contact us as it is likely that we did not receive them. However, please be aware that in periods of high workload, it can take more time to process responses.
Disclaimer
We will not accept comments submitted anonymously or those which we consider to contain libellous, discriminatory, defamatory or otherwise offensive remarks.
We have absolute discretion in this matter, and reserve the right not to post such comments. We dissociate from any comments made of a libellous, discriminatory, defamatory or otherwise offensive nature.
We also cannot accept any representations which include comments that may be considered racist under the Equality Act 2010, including generalisations, stereotypes or negative perceptions of race, ethnicity or culture.
Generally a racist comment would be one which includes words, phrases or comments which are likely:
- To be offensive to a particular racial or ethnic group
- To be racially abusive, insulting or threatening
- To apply pressure to discriminate on racial grounds
- To stir up racial hatred or contempt.
Any representations considered to meet the criteria above will not be published on the website and will be returned to the sender. The sender can then consider whether to resubmit their representation without the comments that were considered unacceptable.
If an applicant has any concerns relating to representations published on the website, please contact us in writing clearly outlining the issues of concern and the matter will be carefully reviewed. It is, however, the Council’s decision whether to publish representations on the website or not.