Last edited 28 Oct 2020

Statutory planning notice

Local planning authorities must undertake a formal period of public consultation before making a decision on a planning application.

Statutory notices ensure local residents are informed about applications that affect them. The requirement for publicising planning applications are set out in Article 13 of the Development Management Procedure (England) Order.

There are separate arrangements for listed buildings and conservation areas, set out in Regulation 5 of the Listed Building and Conservation Area Regulations. There are further publicity and consultation requirements for applicants where an Environmental Impact Assessment is required, and these are described in the Environment Impact Assessment guidance.

If an application is approved without having had the proper publicity, the local Government Ombudsman can, in certain circumstances, agree payment of a limited amount of compensation, but they will not revoke the planning consent.

The broad requirements are summarised in the table below, which is from the government’s Planning Practice and Guidance, Consultation and pre-decision matters.

Type of development	Site notice	Site notice or neighbour notification letter	Newspaper advertisement	Website
Applications for major development as defined in Article 2 of the Development Management Procedure Order		X	X	X
Applications subject to Environmental Impact Assessment which are accompanied by an environmental statement	X		X	X
Applications which do not accord with the development plan in force in the area	X		X	X
Applications which would affect a right of way to which Part 3 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 applies	X		X	X
Applications for planning permission not covered in the entries above eg non-major development		X		X
Applications for listed building consent where works to the exterior of the building are proposed	X		X	X
Applications to vary or discharge conditions attached to a listed building consent or conservation area consent, or involving exterior works to a listed building.	X		X	X

In December 2014, Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles announced that ‘…public bodies must do more than just provide an obscure notice on the depths of a council’s website’ and invited invited councils, local newspapers and others to take part in piloting ways of improving the provision of statutory notices using new technology.

The pilots were intended to provide evidence about what the public wants to be or should be informed about, how they want to be informed and what works and does not work. They ran from March 2015 to the end of August 2015. Ref Councils and media invited to bring statutory notices into 21st century. 23 December 2014.