Come to a view on the application

When you have

• Examined the planning application
• Visited the site of the proposed development

your next step is to come to a view on the proposal.

The decision taken on a planning application by a local authority is guided mainly by the policies in the development plan.

Your criteria when judging an application may be different.

You may have a special interest in protecting local wildlife, for example, or safeguarding the street scene or natural landscape.

When taking a view on the proposal
Remember that good development can enhance the environment.

Consider exactly what you want new development in your area to achieve, and to establish some clear objectives against which you can judge proposals.

This will make your case to the planning authority more persuasive.

Use local knowledge
As someone who knows the area well or has specialist knowledge on a particular subject, you may be able to provide the planning authority with previously unconsidered information.

Try to obtain as much local knowledge as possible - for example, details of groups of trees that are particularly valued, landscape views or whether local roads are used as rat-runs.

Think long term
It is important to take a long-term view of the impact of developments, both individually and cumulatively.

Consider

• Whether the proposal will strengthen or weaken the physical distinction between town and country.
• Ask yourself whether the proposal offers positive benefits to the area, like increased public access or landscape restoration.
• Will the development put a building or derelict site to better use?
• Will it make existing problems worse by encouraging more traffic or damaging a wildlife habitat or by looking out of character?

Planning permissions apply to land rather than to owners or occupiers, so a planning permission granted now could be used to damaging effect in future by a less sympathetic occupier.

To stop that from happening, you can campaign for stringent conditions so that excesses are ruled out by the permission.

You can keep an eye on the site to help ensure that any subsequent application to remove or modify the conditions is refused; and you can argue for a planning gain agreement, if money is involved, to bind any future owner.

Stick to principles
Is a point of principle at stake which overrides any short-term or minor advantages of a development proposal?

For example, you may wish to argue the principle of protecting the countryside for its intrinsic value or of conserving the historic environment for future generations.

Consider if it's setting a precedent

• Could a poor decision on a planning application encourage a flood of further proposals that would then prove difficult to resist?

Also consider cumulative developments

Could a proposal, broadly acceptable in itself, be a stepping-stone to something that would be unacceptable?

• A small development outside the defined limits of a village may be acceptable in some cases, but will it lead to the unintended expansion of the village as other developers try their luck?
• Can you be sure, for example, that a shouse built for seasonal renting to holiday makers will not one day be sold off as a permanent home in an area wherethis would noormally be resisted? 

Consider the potential for improvement
Always look to see if there are improvements that could be made to the proposal, such as by changes to the proposal itself or safeguards through the use of planning conditions, so that it does either less harm or more good.

This could be through using

• Less energy
• Less water
• Less raw materials
• Encouraging alternatives to the car
• Less land allocated to parking means more land available for more sustainable land uses.