Pre-application Consultation

What is Pre Application Consultation?

Pre Application Consultations were introduced in the 2006 Planning Act and involve consultation with the community for major or national applications, as defined in the Act, at least 12 weeks before submitting a formal planning application.

When discussing your proposal with the Planning authority, you may wish to consider a Processing Agreement which is a form of agreed project management for larger and more complex applications. See further information here.

How do I submit a Pre Application Consultation?

The applicant is required to submit notice of the Pre Application Consultation in the form of a Proposal of Application Notice to the Council.

When you submit your planning application you will need to include a Pre-Application Consultation report on the public consultation you have carried out and how your proposed development has taken into account any comments received. Please note that this report should be included as a separate document, rather than included as part of another document.

The notice must include details of the proposal along with a list of those they intend to consult and how, including an event. This event could be in the form of an exhibition or public meeting and at least one event must be held. The "public event" must be advertised in the Evening Times newspaper at least 7 days in advance of the event.

A  Pre-Application Consultation Advert Form [10kb] has been provided to assist you with this which should be completed and submitted to the Evening Times for publication.

Community Consultation

The applicant must consult any Community Council whose area covers or borders the application site but they can also consult additional people or groups if they so wish. The Council can require additional consultations to be made if they consider they are required under the terms of the Act.

The earliest date on which the planning application can be submitted for a proposal is a minimum of 12 weeks from when the Notice was received by the Council.

Notice Period

This Notice will be placed on the Council's Weekly List and will remain on the list until the application is submitted or the Proposal of Application Notices expires, 12 months from when it has been received by the Council.

Public Comments

It should be noted that any public comments regarding the proposal during this period can only be made to the applicant/agent and not to the Council. This is to allow the applicant to consider community comments before submitting the application.

Any comments made to the Council will not be considered at this stage.