Duty Officer Available

From 30th April Duty Officer Service will be available:-

• Monday & Wednesday 10am - 4pm without appointment.
• Friday by appointment only between 10am - 4pm.

There is no Duty Officer Service available on Tuesday and Thursday. On these two days when the Duty Officer Service is not available, enquiries will need to be made by telephone via the Contact Centre.

For Friday appointments please contact the Contact Centre, who will make the necessary arrangements. Appointments must be made by 2pm Thursday at the latest.

The service is currently a free service to assist homeowners with their enquiries in relation to extensions and other works to their properties. In many cases, unless very straightforward, it will be suggested that written advice should also be obtained.

The formal pre-application process has been set up to deal with commercial proposals and any required advice regarding such schemes should follow the pre-application procedure outlined on the Council's web-site.

The specific role of the duty officer and queries undertaken as a part of this service are limited to:

• Answering permitted development enquiries concerning householder matters
• Pre-application proposals for extensions to dwellings
• Advice on authorised uses (subject to next paragraph below)
• General advice on explaining current applications - this will include measurements, etc.
• Advice on completing the application form
• Validation queries in relation to the reasons given why applications are invalid - however, these may ultimately have to be answered by the scrutiny officer (who assesses whether an application is valid or not) if not straightforward
• Planning application fee checks

The following queries cannot be undertaken under the duty service:

• Detail of a commercial development and includes residential development (including replacement dwellings), extensions to commercial premises and changes of use - these should be directed through the formal pre-application process
• Updates on the progress of specific current applications - the details will be recorded by the Contact Centre and the customer will be contacted by the case officer direct
• Planning history checks - the Customer Services Advisor in the Contact Centre will provide the required planning history information from which required files can be accessed
• Checking if an application about to be submitted is valid - the application will be passed to Technical Services to process application where those checks will be made.

If you are visiting the offices, please have to hand the following information which should be provided before contacting the duty officer:

• Site address
• Development proposal - detail to include, for example in relation to house extensions, height of extension (single/two storey/etc.) and location (front, side or rear) on the property
• What it is the customer is looking for - i.e. is it permitted development or would it be acceptable

It is also often helpful if the customer has scaled or dimensioned drawings, photos of the site and surroundings, etc. to explain their proposal.

Before the duty officer is able to meet you, they will need to check planning history, local plan and the Council's mapping systems, where appropriate, before meeting you and there can often be a noticeable time lag between your request and their arrival to meet you. Also, there may be a queue of people visiting to see the duty officer. Please bear with us as we only have the resources to provide one duty officer available at one time.

A brief record will be made of the conversation that is made between the customer and the duty officer. Although the Council does not automatically publish the details of pre-application discussions, under the Freedom of Information Act, we may receive from time to time a request from a member of the public to provide information regarding enquiries for pre-application advice and of any advice given. Subject to certain exemptions, we are obliged to provide this information under the Data Protection Act. The exemptions relate to commercially sensitive and confidential information. It is therefore important that you bring to the Council's attention at the outset any information which you consider may, if disclosed, prejudice your commercial interests or which you consider would breach confidentiality. It is then for the Council to decide whether it believes the information falls into these exempt categories, if a Freedom of Information request is subsequently received.