Commenting on a planning application

Commenting on a planning application

Every member of the public has the right to comment on an application that affects them. You should clearly state the reasons why you are supporting or objecting to the development proposal, only reasons that are related to planning issues will be taken into account in assessing an application.

Examples include:

• Loss of privacy
• Loss of light
• Intensity of development
• Design and appearance
• Highway matters, for example traffic and parking
• Impact on community facilities

We cannot take into account:

• Loss of property value
• Commercial competition
• Loss of view
• Disturbance during building work
• Land ownership disputes

Defamatory, rude, or inappropriate comments

Only comments made on relevant planning grounds will be taken into consideration when assessing a planning application. Comments that are considered to be defamatory, rude or contain inappropriate content will not be published on our website or included in any report.

Guidelines:

• Comments can only be submitted against ‘live’ applications – ones that have been made valid but not yet decided.
• Please note that when commenting on planning applications, our policy is to publish representations on our website to enable public viewing. We redact (blank out) phone numbers, names, addresses, email addresses and signatures together with personal data that can identify you or a third party.
• Please do not include any sensitive information (e.g. health or other personal data) or any third-party personal data within your comments, this information will be redacted before being published on our website.
• Due to the high volume of representations, there is likely to be a delay of 5 days between comments being received and published on our website.
• We do not send acknowledgement emails.

Responding to questions

Due to the high volume of comments on planning applications, the Council cannot enter into dialogue regarding individual cases and as such your comments should be self-contained. Any questions that are raised in your response will be treated as being rhetorical.

Making comments online

Once you have located the application using the search facility on our public access system click on the ‘make a comment’ button.

If you are not already registered to our public access system, please follow the on-screen instructions. You must be registered to submit comments. Please note that for security purposes the system will time out after 30 minutes. If you think that composing your comment will exceed the time out period, we suggest drafting your comments and copying into the comments box, alternatively, you can also email comments to us.