Changes to National Legislation Relating to Applications for Outline Planning Permission and Reserved Matters

Background

On 10 August 2006 changes to the outline planning permission process came into force. These changes relate to the information to be provided at the outline application stage and matters that are reserved for subsequent approval.

The changes, when taken alongside the requirement to submit a design and access statement, meant that outline applications received by the Council from 10 August 2006 had to demonstrate more clearly that the proposals had been considered in the light of relevant policies and the site's constraints and opportunities.

Reserved Matters

Outline planning permission is granted subject to a condition requiring the subsequent approval of one or more reserved matters. Reserved matters previously consisted of siting, design, external appearance, means of access and landscaping. As a result of the changes to national legislation, reserved matters, as from the 10 August 2006, include the following:

• Layout - the way in which buildings, routes and open spaces are provided within the development and their relationship to buildings and spaces outside the development.
• Scale - the height, width and length of each building proposed in relation to its
  surroundings.
• Appearance - the aspects of a building or place which determine the visual impression it makes. This includes the external built form of the development, its architecture, materials, decoration, lighting, colour and texture.
• Access - this covers accessibility to and within the site for vehicles, cycles and pedestrians in terms of positioning and treatment of access and circulation routes and how these fit into the surrounding network.
• Landscaping - this is the treatment of private and public space to enhance or protect the site's amenity through hard and soft measures, for example, through planting of trees or hedges or screening by fences or walls, the formation of banks or terraces, or the layout of gardens, courts and squares.

Minimum Information to be Submitted with an Outline Application

With an application for outline planning permission detailed consideration will always be required on the use and amount of development. In addition, even if layout, scale and access are reserved, an application will still require a basic level of information on these issues in the application. As a minimum, therefore, applications should always include information on:

• Use - the use or uses proposed for the development and any distinct development zones within the site identified.
• Amount of development - the amount of development proposed for each use.
• Indicative layout - an indicative layout with the approximate location of buildings, routes and open spaces and, where appropriate separate development zones proposed within the site boundary.
• Scale and parameters - an indication of the upper and lower limits for height, width and length of each building within the site boundary.
• Indicative access points - an area or areas in which the access point or points to the site will be situated.

A Design and Access Statement accompanying an outline application should explain and justify the design and access principles that will be used to develop future details of the scheme, and will form a link between the outline permission and the consideration of reserved matters.

Applications for outline planning permission received from 10 August 2006 will need to clearly include the relevant information as required by these changes.

Further guidance on these changes is provided in the following documents:

• |DCLG Circular 01/2006, and
• |CABE: How to write, read and use Design and Access Statements

Should you require any further advice please contact the |Planning Department.