We offer town planning advice for planning permission approvals and buildings including changes of uses.

Planning Permission and Drawings

We deal with the following planning consents:

• Householder planning consent
• Full planning consent
• Outline planning consent
• Reserved Matters
• Listed building consent
• Advertisement consent
• Lawful Development Certificate (LDC)
• Prior approvals (except the type listed below)
• Removal/variation of conditions
• Approval (Discharge) of conditions
• Consent under Tree Preservation Orders
• Notification of proposed works to trees in conservation areas
• Non-material amendment of an existing planning permission
• Applications for prior approval of a proposed:
  • Enlargement of a dwellinghouse by construction of additional storeys
  • New dwellinghouses on detached blocks of flats
  • New dwellinghouses on detached buildings in commercial or mixed use
  • New dwellinghouses on terrace buildings in commercial or mixed use
  • New dwellinghouses on terrace buildings in use as dwellinghouses
  • New dwellinghouses on detached buildings in use as dwellinghouses
• Demolition of buildings and construction of new dwellinghouses in their place
• Application to determine if prior approval is required for a proposed:
  • Change of use – commercial/business/service to dwellinghouses
  • Change of use – commercial/business/service/etc to mixed use including up to two flats
  • Erection, extension, or alteration of a university building
• Application for Permission in Principle
• Application for a Certificate of Lawfulness of Proposed Works to a listed building

Building regulations drawings

For domestic work there is a choice of building control application routes, full plans, building notice and regularisation application for retrospective works.

Full Plans

If you wish to have your plans checked and approved before the work starts, you apply using the Full Plans form.

An building regulations application deposited under this procedure needs to contain plans and other information showing all construction details, preferably well in advance of when work is to start on site.

Your local authority will check your plans and consult any appropriate authorities.

If your plans comply with the building regulations you will receive a notice stating that they have been approved. If your local authority is not satisfied you may be asked to make amendments or provide more details. Alternatively, a conditional approval may be issued. This will either specify modifications which must be made to the plans; or will specify further plans which must be deposited with your authority.

If your plans are rejected the reasons will be stated in the notice. A full plans approval notice is valid for three years from the date of deposit of the plans

Building Notices

If the work is uncomplicated and you are happy that you or your builder has a reasonably good understanding of the building regulations, then you can use a building notice form. The advantage of the building notice procedure is that detailed drawings are not formally required for approval, although some details such as structural calculations may be required. You may start work 48 hours after your notice has been received by the local authority.

Plans are not required with this process so it’s quicker and less detailed than the full plans application.

There are also specific exclusions in the regulations as to when building notices cannot be used in relation to domestic work, a building notice cannot be used:

• For work which will be built close to or over the top of rain water and foul drains shown on the ‘map of sewers’
• Where a new building will front onto a private street

A ‘building notice’ is valid for three years from the date the notice was given to the local authority, after which it will automatically lapse if the building work has not commenced.

Retrospective regularisation applications

If the work has already recently started or possibly even been completed without proper consent, then a retrospective application can be made using a Regularisation form.

You can even use this if the work was carried out by a former owner. Any work can potentially be regularised as long as it was carried out after the 11 November 1985.

The purpose of the process is to regularise the unauthorised works and obtain a certificate of regularisation. Depending on the circumstances, exposure, removal and/or rectification of works may be necessary to establish compliance with the building regulations.

What Else we offer

• Site plans
• Block Plans
• Layout plans
• Location Plans
• Building Plans for house extensions
• Planning application submissions
• Change of use drawings/applications
• 2D CAD layouts
• Building Regtion Specifications
• Site Surveys
• Planning layouts

We cover Stoke-on-Trent City Council, East Staffordshire Borough Council, Cannnock Chase District Council, South Staffordshire Council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, Lichfield District Council, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Stafford Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council