Services
Local Plan Promotion
Local planning authorities are required to update their planning policy, including to forecast new housing and employment development opportunities. On behalf of our clients, Hollistic Planning can promote development sites as suitable and available for such opportunities. We can also propose alterations to designation boundaries or proposed policy wording. We do this by preparing detailed evidence and submitting formal representations throughout the emerging local plan process. The desired outcomes vary. The objective could be to secure a land-use designation upon your site. Alternatively, it could be to secure policy wording which allows effective development of an existing allocation.
Planning Appraisals
Curious about the development potential of a site you already own or are considering the purchase of? Hollistic Planning can review a site’s planning credentials. Typically this includes consideration of relevant environmental constraints (for example flood zone status), any relevant planning history, and its planning policy context (is it allocated for development potential, or subject to restrictions to prevent development such as being within a Green Belt designation?).
Pre-Application
Advice Requests
Formal pre-application advice from a Council can provide an effective step ahead of a planning application submission and / or acquisition of a site. We can coordinate and submit a pre-application advice request on your behalf. We will prepare a Pre-Application Statement which presents the planning case for your proposal, and seeks to secure robust feedback from the authority. This can include clarity on what documents should inform a planning application, and if the Council could support a development proposal. The intended outcome is to assist you in making an informed decision on next steps including whether to progress with a planning application.
Planning Application
Submission
Hollistic Planning can lead on the pre-submission and post-submission stages of a planning application. Our comprehensive experience has secured a superlative network of multidisciplinary professionals covering technical disciplines including design, highways, ecology, landscaping, drainage, acoustics, and contaminated land. We regularly coordinate consultants as well as the planning applications submission itself. More often than not, we will then manage the post-submission stage, acting as a mediator between the Council, statutory consultees (such as the Highways Authority), and our client. We will monitor the application and keep you updated. We will also navigate the post-submission negotiations for you. Our role can attend presenting an application at Planning Committee.
Certificate of Lawfulness
There are instances where an existing or proposed development (or use) does not need planning permission, but it can be helpful having that confirmation in black and white. Where we anticipate this to be the case, Hollistic Planning can prepare a Certificate of Lawful Proposed Use or Development [‘CLPUD’] or a Certificate of Lawful Existing Use or Development [‘CLEUD’] submission. The document pack will include preparation of evidence that we will present in a Supporting Statement. We will submit this to the Council for their legal opinion. The desired outcome is agreement that formal planning permission is not required.
Planning Appeals
Unfortunately, not all planning applications receive the support from the relevant Council, and sometimes delays require action against the non-determination of a planning application. Hollistic Planning provides pre-submission and post-submission management of appeals to the Planning Inspectorate, including where we haven’t managed the relevant planning application. We can also prepare Statements of Case where an applicant or architect wishes to manage the submission of an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. We support on appeals to be determined via Written Representations, Hearing, or Public Enquiry.
Planning Support
Hollistic Planning offers support services to fellow planning consultants and architects. This can provide a short-term solution where you need additional resources to meet client expectations, or where an application could benefit from our planning expertise. Our planning support services include preparing or providing input into written reports (such as Planning Statements or Design and Access Statements), preparing requisite application forms, or being the named planning agent for an application submission. We also offer in-person support which could include attending meetings or undertaking site visits on your behalf. This can be helpful if you find you’re needed in two places at once (i.e. two clashing local plan hearing sessions), or geography would mean you’d turn down a potential enquiry in the North of England or the Midlands.
Supporting Statements
Where an Applicant or an architect is the named agent for a planning application, we can prepare standalone statements to support that development proposal. This could be a Planning Statement.