The Planning System
The planning process provides a way of controlling how land is used and what can be built and where. The system helps to meet the need for uses of land for housing, employment, education and social facilities while seeking to protect and improve the environment. It therefore aims to strike a balance between conservation of the built and natural environment with development that is necessary for economic prosperity or social need.
Warwick District Council prepares and adopts various documents to guide this process, including Development Plans, consisting of maps and written policies, to show where and in what quantity various types of development will be permitted and supplementary planning guidance. The council also operates a Development Control system to make sure that proposed development conforms to the plan and approved guidance.
Planning Policy
There are a number of levels in the planning system which provide the framework within which development proposals are judged, ranging from Central Government Guidance to guidance notes provided by Warwick District. Warwick District Council adopted its 1996-2011 Local Plan in September 2007 and the full version can be viewed on this website.
The role of planning policy is to provide a framework of policies by which key land-use planning decisions can be made, while Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) gives more detailed planning policy than is provided by the local plan.
The Policy Team within the Planning & Engineering Department also gathers background land use information essential to the planning work which is undertaken.
Development Control
Development Control is the part of the planning system that makes sure that all proposed development meets the requirements for that location laid down in the Local Plan and in other guidance.
Planning applications are required for development of land or buildings, including extending or changing the use of an existing building. However, there are certain "permitted development" rights for both businesses and residential houses which allow some types of development without the need for planning permission. There are also different regulations governing the display of outdoor advertising, developments affecting 'listed' buildings of architectural, historic or cultural importance, and demolition of unlisted buildings in conservation areas.
You can also Search for a Planning Application on the website,which will give brief details of all applications received over approximately the past 5 years.
The development Control team of the Planning and Engineering Department deal with approximately two thousand applications per year, ranging from small householder applications to large multi-million pound developments.
If you undertake development without the required permission, Warwick District Council may ask you to make a retrospective planning application. If it decides that permission should not be granted, it may require you to put things back as they were via Enforcement Action. You can appeal, but if the Councils decision is upheld, and the development remains in place, prosecution action may be taken.
|