Send this page to a friend

Planning

About the Planning Service

Legislation has been passed to merge the County, Borough and District councils in Shropshire to form a single Unitary Council. The new Council will start work on 1st April 2009. In the meantime, an Implementation Executive (IE) has been established to take key decisions. At its first formal meeting on Friday 29th February, IE set up three sub-committees including one devoted to taking forward work on the Local Development Framework (LDF). Meetings of both the IE and the LDF sub-committee are open to members of the public and representatives from the media and their agendas and minutes will be publicised on all the Councils' websites.

The County, Borough and District Councils have agreed to develop a single Core Strategy for the new Unitary Council area. On 9th April the IE approved a draft joint Local Development Scheme (LDS) which sets out the timetable for the joint LDF. The LDF will replace the current Local Plans for all the Districts in Shropshire and the County Council's Waste Local Plan. If you would like to know more about the LDF visit the Shropshire County Council website.

In the period before 1st April 2009 each of Shropshire's District and Borough Councils will continue to take decisions on planning applications in their individual areas whilst the County Council will continue to take decisions on County matters and minerals and waste applications. In making these decisions on planning applications, each Council will continue to apply their own adopted 'saved' Local Plan policies to their individual areas. If you have a planning enquiry in the period before 1st April 2009 you should continue to contact the planning department at your Local Council.

Bridgnorth District Council's Planning Service is divided into three divisions which all sit within the Development Services Directorate:

• Local Plans and Regeneration is responsible for the Local Plan and the Local Development Framework. They are also responsible for development briefs and other guidelines, transport policies, and measures to protect and improve the environment.
• Development Control deals with the processing of planning applications ensuring that they take account of district policies and briefs, government guidance and the individual merits of each scheme, in order to control development in the district in the public interest. You can request an informal opinion on planning permission online.
• Building Control ensures that building work complies with health, safety, energy conservation and access for the disabled requirements, as laid down in the Building Regulations and Building Acts.

Planning Application Forms

From 6th April 2008, the new national standard planning application form (1APP) will replace all existing types of planning application forms (except applications for minerals) within England, and will become the only legal way of submitting a planning application.

Find out more.

Planning Applications Fees

As from 6th April 2008 changes to the Regulations regarding the Planning Applications Fees take effect. These are set by the government and are the same across all Local Authorities in England.

Find out more.

Online facilities

Since we deployed a new planning system on April 1, 2005 we have developed online services that enable you greater access to the planning applications that are made to the authority. For a general overview of the planning system see the National Planning Portal

• Guide to the Planning Process - offers a brief introduction to the planning system and some explanation of what planning is for and why it is important; intended for both householders and business people and explains why planning controls are necessary and how decisions are made.

Online Planning Register

You can view an online list of planning applications logged with the council since the April 1, 2005. The register is automatically updated on a daily basis. From November 2003 until November 2005 the application register was published weekly and these pre-online application registers can still be viewed.

View application drawings and attachments

You can view digital copies of application drawings and attachments accompanying a planning application and as with the planning register these are updated daily.

However, please be aware it may take up to five working days from the date of registration for the documents appear on the website.

All documents are available as PDF files and you will need the Adobe Acrobat viewer installed. When viewing the documents please bear in the mind the following copyright notice.

Copyright notice

Plans, drawings and material submitted to the council are protected by the copyright acts (section 47, 1988 act).

You may only use material which is downloaded and/or printed for consultation purposes, to compare current applications with previous schemes and to check whether developments have been completed in accordance with approved plans.

Further copies must not be made without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Appeals

You can access a record of appeals against the council lodged with the Planning Inspectorate since April 1, 2005. The register is automatically updated on a daily basis. From 2003 until 2005 the appeals record was published and these pre-online appeals records can still be viewed. Appeal information is located within the committee minutes for the Development Control committee.

You can also find out more about appealing on the National Planning Portal

• Appeal - if you seek permission to carry out works to your property and your application isn't decided within a set period, or you get a decision from your local council that you disagree with, you have a right to appeal.

Commenting on applications

We offer the facility to comment on applications during the consultation period which is usually three weeks.

For all applications where this applies there will be a 'Please click here to submit a comment on this application' link at the bottom of the application details page.

Monitoring an application

You can monitor the progress of an application from registration to determination.

Visit the online planning page for a variety of options of how to find the application that you want to monitor. The applications are automatically updated on a daily basis.

Online Decision Register

You can access a record of applications determined by the council.

The register contains all decisions made since April 1, 2005. The register is automatically updated on a daily basis and you can check the last update date here.

From November 2003 until November 2005 the decision register was published weekly and these pre-online decision registers can still be viewed.

View a decision notice

Scanned copies of the statutory decision notices issued by the authority are available to view in full online for decisions made since October 1, 2005.

The decision notice can be accessed by selecting an application that has been decided and then select the documents tab at the top of the screen.

All decision notices are stored in Adobe Acrobat format. The documents are automatically updated on a daily basis and you can check the last update date here.

Conditions and reasons

You can view either through a planning record (since April 1, 2005) or the decision notice (since October 1, 2005) the conditions attached to a planning pemission or reasons for refusal for each application in full for delegated and non delegated decisions. The documents are automatically updated on a daily basis.

Officer's reports

You can view electronic versions of officer's reports for committee determined applications through our committee system.

These reports are provided in full and you can access reports back to May 14, 2003.

The information is updated on a regular basis and reports are made available immediately after the publication of the committee agenda.

Committee meeting schedule/agenda

You can view an online calendar for forthcoming planning committee meetings (the Development Control committee)

Record of committee meetings

You can view the minutes from previous planning committee meetings on this website and they are updated as soon as the minutes are published

Online planning help text

You can view web-based planning guidance and answers to basic planning enquiries through our association with the National Planning Portal. They provide the following relevant sections.

• Study - the Study section aims to help people to teach or learn about town and country planning at all levels and in all types of education.
• Research - the Research section of the Portal is intended to help professional planners, lawyers, students, academics and others with an in-depth interest in town and country planning. Includes PPGs and other guidance

Online application submission

You can complete a planning application form online and submit it electronically via the National Planning Portal.

You can attach electronic documents and drawings when submitting online applications. Full guidance on the online process is given during the application process.

• Apply - Make a planning application to the Council entirely electronically - no paper forms to fill out and send to us!

Paying the application fee

You can now pay the statutory application fee online through this website.

We intend to fully integrate into the Planning Portal application process in the very near future, however, in the meantime you can go our online planing application payment form.

You will need the application form and a Visa or Mastercard to be able to use the service.

When you make your application you will be told by the Planning Portal that we only accept cheques, however, if you make a note of your application number and the amount payable then come back to this page, you can pay the application fee through the link above.

Downloadable forms

If you could prefer to download electronic copies of standard planning forms and print them out then use our link to the National Planning Portal

• Application Forms - You may use this service to help to produce your proposal and then print your forms and submit them by post. You can also use the on-line applications service to produce a site location plan to accompany your application.

Local Development Plan

You can view the local development plan text online. This is the draft development plan that has just been written. There are a series of pages that have been written about the process.

Local Development Plan proposals map

The proposal map accompanying the development plan is available to view online via our interactive mapping service and is shown is sections, but does cover the whole of the District.

If you select the address search tab then you can access a list of relevant policies and designations for an individual site by using the address or postcode search.

If you prefer to scroll around the map then clicking 'Get Info' on an area will show you the relevant policies and designations. The key on the left of the screen will provide a 'pop-up' listing of the relevant policy number and policy text.

By using the interactive mapping service you can indentify street names and/or locate an individual site on the map, via the postcode and/or street name search described above.

There are also facilities for magniftying the map (zoom in/out functionality) and you should be able to locate and determine policy designations for application sites.

To find out about sustainable building, visit www.sustainablebuild.co.uk