Planning permission – a basic guide
When you're building new premises, or even just extending your current property, it is essential to check whether planning permission is needed. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
This is particularly true for any business that deals in food and drink. A bit of homework before you commit yourself could save you a lot of money in the long run. Expert help costs, and it is much better not to have need of it in the first place.
First step
First, and perhaps most importantly, you will have to sell the scheme to the planning officers and to the planning committee.
The difference between these two sets of planning bodies needs to be well understood:
The planning committee is composed of elected councillors and they make the final decision on whether permission can be given.
The planning officers are employed by the local authority to look at the scheme on its technical merits and advise the committee. They do not make the decisions but the planning committee heavily relies on their expertise.
What makes a good planning application?
There are several key factors that may encourage a positive attitude towards your scheme by the local authority.
For example:
Investing in a particular area
Creation of jobs
Smartening up a run-down building and its surroundings.
But you must also consider more mundane matters as these are the ones that hold up applications.
For example:
Hours of opening
Litter and rubbish disposal
Type of clientele your business is likely to attract.
What's next?
An early visit to the planning department to find out background information is invaluable. Pre-application discussions and presentations can both demonstrate commitment to the scheme and bring out a more positive approach from local authority planners.
Even if the signs are that your application will not conflict with past planning uses or present policy, it is still necessary to consider the details and discuss them with the planning officer.
They will suggest that you also consult with other local authority departments and officers.
For example:
The building control officer about structural work and fire regulations,
The environmental health officer about cooking smells, areas for storage and preparation of food, disposal of waste, grease traps, and hours of operation,
Licensing officers if alcohol is to be served,
The police where there are known parking and traffic problems, and they may also have views on the desirability of additional licensed premises in that area.
Development plan
Each local authority will have a set group of aims and objectives for the planning department. This is usually known as the Development Plan, but may also be known as Local Plan or, in areas like large towns and cities, a Unitary Development Plan.
Whatever it is called, checking it is vital as the Development Plan is the starting point for determining a planning application. If the Development Plan says, for instance, that no new licenses should be granted in the next two years, then there is little chance you'll get permission for a new bar.
Listed buildings
It is also worth checking whether the premises are a listed building or lie in a conservation area, which is less restrictive. Although this can severely limit what you can do, a listed restaurant or pub can provide an atmosphere that will help business in the area. Planners often welcome sympathetic conversions of redundant buildings of historic or architectural value into pubs or restaurants, unless they would create amenity or traffic problems.
What already has permission?
You must check what the planning history is on the site you've chosen.
What has already been permitted or built, especially within the last ten years or so?
What has been refused permission?
What may be operating in contravention of an enforcement notice?
If there is an enforcement notice restricting what you want to do, it is best either to walk away or immediately get some first-class legal assistance. Enforcement notices are generally a permanent charge on the land. If ignored, these can involve expensive visits to the Magistrates' courts.
Change of use
To make life slightly easier for all involved in the planning process, a system of Use Classes was set up about 50 years ago. Every property is put into various categories, called classes, and change of use within these classes does not need planning permission.
Since 1987 in England and Wales restaurants, public houses and hot food takeaways have all been within the same use class, A3, and planning permission is not required for, say, a change of use from a pub to a restaurant. In Scotland, pubs remain outside normal use classes.
Permission would be required to change the use of premises from a High Street use such as a shop (A1) or bank (A2), for example, to A3. Some local authorities have policies that cover shopping frontages defining how many A3 uses they may allow in a particular row of shops, if any. This in itself may indicate how successful the application is likely to be.
Coffee shops
A shop selling hot soup, coffee, sandwiches and cakes for consumption off the premises will lie in use class A1. However, a grey area is created if the shop has a certain number of tables and chairs for customers to eat on the premises. This might make it a café (A3) and put it in contravention of the planning policies for the area. Additionally, if it starts selling hot food like pizzas and chips as a major part of sales this might make the shop an A3 take-away.
Cybercafes are currently regarded as being in a class of their own, although this situation may change with a forthcoming review of the use classes.
Mixed use
Many towns and cities now have entertainment or leisure quarters where restaurants and wine bars are encouraged to flourish, even in areas formerly allocated strictly for office and business use. This is usually done to liven up town centres both by day and night.
In contrast most new pubs outside town centres tend to be located where there is plenty of parking and space for outdoor play facilities so that they can cater for the family market. They are often welcomed as part of a "mixed use" scheme regenerating a formerly run-down and decayed part of the district.
Take-aways
Getting permission for an A3 property in quieter suburban areas is increasingly difficult, especially for take-aways. Most development plans contain policies restricting the location and number of take-aways as they tend to be the most contentious uses within class A3.
Opening hours, noise from customers and their cars, cooking smells, litter and rubbish disposal are the most frequent reasons that proposal for take-aways fail. Pubs are, of course, controlled by magistrates' licences, and unless 24-hour opening takes hold, they close relatively early. Restaurant permissions in these areas often have conditions restricting take-away sales in spite of their being in the same A3 use class.
Conclusion
Taken together, the Development Plan allocation and the planning history will give you some idea of how your application is likely to be received. It may be that they appear to conflict with each other, in which case up-to-date planning policy may carry more weight than past history. Changes in policy mean that when planning permission expires it cannot be assumed that permission will automatically be granted again for the same or similar use.
It may be that you are erecting a new building or extending an existing property, in which case the design, materials and landscaping will need to be discussed. Planners tend to look for a higher standard of design and finish than, say, twenty years ago, so that it is not good tactics to point at surrounding buildings of poor quality as a precedent for your own scheme.
The important point, however large or small your project is, is to be able to present it in a positive manner to the planning officer, with all the potential problems either ironed out, or anticipated and addressed in such a way that they can be dealt with through negotiation.
by John Seacome
John Seacome is a chartered town planner at Eversheds
