Pre-application advice service

From 1st April 2023, the Borough Council will be charging prospective applicants for advice given prior to submitting a planning application.

The schedule of charges can be found in Appendix 1 and expected service standards are set out in Appendix 2 below.

If you have made a planning application and wish to discuss this with your Case Officer, their contact details will be on your acknowledgement letter.

If you want to know if planning permission would be required for development, you should refer to the relevant legislation (non-domestic development) and guidance available on the Planning Portal (for householder development) at interactive.planningportal.co.uk

For a formal determination as to the need for planning permission you should submit an application for a Certificate of Lawfulness of Proposed Use or Development. Details of how to do this are available on our website.

Pre-application enquiries must be submitted in writing (ideally by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) with the requisite fee. The fee should be paid over the telephone to our Contact Centre on 0115 9072244. Please provide details of the site address at that stage and advise that the fee relates to a request for pre-application advice. You are advised to provide sufficient details of sufficient quality to allow the council to fully understand and interpret your proposals and to allow a proper assessment of the proposed works.

Upon receipt, your enquiry will be allocated to a Planning Officer and you will receive an acknowledgement. Please allow the Officer time to consider the proposals, in accordance with the service standards below, before contacting them for an update. The Officer will contact you if you have requested a meeting or further information/clarification is required. Planning Officers are unable to provide advice about appropriate works to trees. You may wish to contact a tree surgeon, or an arboricultural consultant.

You should note that whilst pre-application advice is always given in good faith and on the basis of the facts available at the time, the advice you are given is not binding on the council in the event of the submission of a planning application when full consultations will be undertaken and a full assessment will be made.

Erewash Borough Council retains the right not to respond to requests for pre-application advice which are not entered into cordially or objectively.

Appendix 1: Fee Schedule

Advice on whether or not a proposal would require a planning application

Any enquirer:  Enquirers will be referred to Town & Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 (as amended) or Planning Portal. Written confirmation of need for planning permission will be given following assessment of an application for a Certificate of Lawfulness of Proposed Use or Development. (see planning application fees schedule)

Advice to Communities

Local Voluntary and Community Groups: To further their charitable aims: No fee

Public Authorities: Such as Parish Councils, County Council and government agencies for their own development proposals. No fee.

Advice to Developers

Application	Type of enquiry	Fee
Residents	Householder development (extensions or alterations to dwellings)	£100 + VAT (£120 including VAT)
*Non-major proposals relating to a single plot or building (such as including a single commercial premises, single house, terrace of houses, or block of flats).	Written enquiry responded to with written advice.	£100 (£120 including VAT)
	Written enquiry and subsequent meeting responded to with written advice.	£200 (£240 including VAT)
*Non-major proposals relating to multiple buildings (for example 2 or more commercial premises or residential buildings).	Written enquiry responded to with written advice.	£200 (£240 including VAT)
	Written enquiry and subsequent meeting responded to with written advice.	£400 (£480 including VAT)
**Major proposals up to 20 dwellings or 2,000 sqm floorspace of other uses.	Written enquiry and subsequent meeting responded to with written advice.	£1,000 (£1,200 including VAT)
**Major proposals over 20 dwellings or 2,000 sqm floorspace of other uses.	Written enquiry and subsequent meeting responded to with written advice.	£2,500 (£3,000 including VAT)
**Major proposals – subsequent meetings about same development.	Per meeting, including subsequent written advice.	£1,000 (£1,200 including VAT)

*Non-Major Applications

Includes applications to display advertisements, changes of use, residential developments of 9 or fewer dwellings and office, retail and industrial developments less than 1000 square metres of floorspace or where site area is less than 1 hectare.

**Major Applications

Include residential developments of 10 or more dwellings and office, retail and industrial developments involving 1000 square metres or more of floorspace or where site area is 1 hectare or over.

Appendix 2: Service Standards for Charged Pre-Application Advice

1. Advice will be based on the proposals as originally made in writing. Consequently proposers are urged to ensure that sites can be readily identified, and that proposals are adequately described, to enable a useful response. To this end, site location maps, block plans, and written descriptions including details of the scale of proposals are strongly recommended. Detailed elevations are encouraged in conservation areas, and where proposals are adjacent areas of housing.

2. All proposals will receive a planning history and planning policy review. Proposals for non-householder minor or major development will also receive an unaccompanied site visit from the public realm.

3. Requests for written advice will normally receive a written response to the matters raised within 4 weeks of receipt of the detailed query and fee in relation to householder enquiries, 6 weeks in relation to minor development and 8 weeks for major development.

4. Requests for a meeting will normally result in the offer of a meeting within 4 weeks of receipt of the detailed query and fee for a minor proposal and 6 weeks for a major proposal, and a written response to the matters raised in the initial query as discussed at the meeting within 2 weeks of the meeting.

5. All written responses to proposals will include a list of the validation requirements for a planning application for those proposals, the heads of terms we would seek in any supporting s106 agreement for such an application, and a list of the consultees Erewash Borough Council would approach on receipt of such an application.

6. Erewash Borough Council cannot be held accountable for advice from third parties, including the Highways Authority or other statutory consultees. Consequently responses from third parties on proposals cannot be guaranteed within the above timescales, and may be subject to additional fees payable to them by the proposer.

7. Requests to consider revised schemes will be treated as a new request for advice subject to a new fee, with the exception of Major proposals where they will be considered as a request for an additional meeting and be subject to that additional fee.