Newark & Sherwood District Council

The aim of this service is to deliver wherever possible timely, responsive, constructive and reliable advice so as to save significant resources by allowing an applicant not to pursue schemes which are unacceptable, or have to be modified once they’ve been submitted.

Pre-application engagement can:

• Give you an opportunity to understand how our policies will be applied to your development and you can identify and resolve potential problems helping to prevent costly and time-consuming amendments to schemes later
• Help to reduce the time spent by professional advisors in working up a proposal
• Significantly increase the likelihood of gaining planning permission or alternatively indicate whether a proposal has little or no realistic chance of success, thus saving you considerable time and money
• Identify at an early stage whether any specialist advice is necessary, for example,  listed buildings, trees, landscape, transport, ecology or archaeology
• Help ensure that any application is complete avoiding any unnecessary delays in validating and determining the application

Anybody wishing to apply for planning permission is strongly advised to use this service. Applications that have been submitted  in the absence of any pre-application discussions are likely to be refused without further negotiation where significant amendments are required to make the development acceptable.

All requests for pre-application advice must be made via our pre-application advice form.

Please note that you must provide the minimum level of information set out in the form to ensure that appropriate and timely advice can be given.

For householder development you can seek advice as to whether you need to submit a planning application by completing our exemption form for which a fee is payable.‌