How to apply for Planning Permission

The quickest and easiest way to apply for planning permission is through the government's online planning portal. Applying online saves on postage and printing, and immediately delivers your application to us. 

What to submit with your application

For every application, you will need to submit a form and various other plans and documents. As a minimum, most applications need:

• A completed application form
• A location plan that:
  • is scaled at 1:1250 or 1:2500 (if rural)
  • has the site outlined in red
  • has any adjoining land in the same ownership outlined in blue
  • shows a North point
• A site plan scaled at 1:200 or 1:500. This should show the proposed works, any trees on site, fences and anything to be demolished. Essentially, it needs to show anything that is there now and anything that is proposed
• Existing and proposed elevation and floor plans. These must be at a recognised scale (e.g. 1:150 or 1:50)
•   Fees (PDF) [679KB] (if required)
• Any other information required by the validation checklists. These with our planning forms and explain the information you need to give. Please read these carefully to avoid delays in processing your application

The planning system can be complicated. For this reason, we always recommend that you use an agent or architect to help you with your submission. 

Before you submit your application, we suggest you check our  validation aid (PDF) [333KB] . This will help you to make sure all the information we need is included with your application. 

Proportion of applications valid on receipt

Applications can only be registered as valid when planning services have received all the required information as set out in our national and local validation lists.  Here at Fenland, we receive a high percentage of invalid applications. This increases the time and workload for our team and could add several weeks onto the application being processed. Each application must be checked in full each time new information is submitted until all the correct information is supplied.

The  proportion of applications valid on receipt table (PDF) [258KB] (updated each month) will give you a guide as to which agents submit all the necessary information right first time. Choosing an agent is a personal choice, and we are not able to recommend one over another. This table is shown in alphabetical order.

Please note that some Agents submit more applications than others which may affect their outcome. When looking at the table, we recommend you look at both the percentage of valid on receipt and the number of applications submitted by the agent.

Your choice of agent should not be based purely on this list, and we recommend that you speak to a number of agents before you appoint somebody to be your planning agent.