OPDC pre-application advice

The more information you provide about your proposal, the more comprehensive and complete our advice will be. Your request for pre-application advice, as a minimum, should include:

• a completed pre-application advice request form
• the site address and a site location plan
• a supporting statement
• indicative plans and elevations of the proposed development
• the appropriate fee
• any other information you consider relevant to the proposal

The cost of pre-application advice will depend on the scale and nature of your proposals.
The fees below include:

• a review of the planning information submitted
• a meeting with OPDC officers
• formal written advice

In order to benefit from the reduced fee for a follow-up meeting, the proposal must be (or include) the same site as the initial meeting, be for a similar use (or uses) as the initial meeting and be within three months of the initial pre-application meeting date. If a number of meetings are projected, then a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) may be more appropriate and further details are set out below.

Further information on how to pay pre-application advice fees is contained in the pre-application advice request form. We cannot process your request until we have received the correct fee.

If we have advised that your pre-application should be submitted to Brent or Ealing, please confirm the relevant fee and submission requirements with that authority.

Once we have received everything we require, your enquiry will be allocated to an OPDC planning officer. The planning officer will then undertake an initial assessment of the information provided and will contact you to arrange a meeting.

We will normally aim to provide a meeting date within 15 working days of receiving a complete request (including correct fee).

Following the meeting, we will provide you with a written response summarising the issues discussed during the meeting and our advice on the planning merits of your proposals.

We will normally aim to provide you with our written response within 15 working days of the meeting. All written advice will be reviewed and agreed with a senior OPDC officer before it is issued.

Whilst we will always endeavour to respond to your enquiry and issuing a response in good time, if for any reason it is not possible to do so, we will provide a response within the timeframe outlined above and agree a revised date.

OPDC is committed to working closely with the local boroughs on major and strategic development proposals and will expect applicants to engage positively with the relevant local borough throughout the planning process. The reason for this is although OPDC are the Local Planning Authority for the area, the local borough continues to hold other statutory powers and responsibilities for public services within their administrative area.

To give clarity to applicants, OPDC and the local boroughs have agreed a common approach on how they will work together on development proposals within a ‘Ways of Working’ document.

Some proposals are complex and will require a programme of meetings to discuss the planning issues that relate to your site. To provide clarity and certainty about how we may view these issues we would recommend entering into a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) to help you through the planning process as it will provide an early opportunity to get a steer from us as the local planning authority. This can include early discussions about possible planning conditions, S106 agreements and the documents you will need to submit with your application. You can enter a PPA at any time during the application process, but it is advisable to do so as early as possible.

Where a series of pre-application meetings is requested, a bespoke programme and fee can be negotiated through a PPA. PPA fees will be based on the reasonable cost of resourcing. Where an applicant enters a PPA with OPDC following a pre-application enquiry for a development of a similar nature, any fee paid in connection with the initial enquiry may be taken in to account.