To benefit from permitted development rights, including those where prior approval is required, a development must comply with the provisions within the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended).
It must also comply with Regulations 75 to 78 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.
Where a developer is, in effect, relying on a permitted right set out within Schedule 2 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 and that development:
the developer will need to receive the approval of the local planning authority under Regulation 77.
A developer can seek to contact the appropriate nature conservation body directly under Regulation 76. In most cases, the relevant nature conservation body is Natural England.
The regulations do not specify how or in what form the details of the development which is intended to be carried out should be submitted.
However, it is in the applicant’s or developer’s interest to ensure that the submitted details and information illustrate what is proposed in a clear and precise manner.
Applicants or developers may wish to submit some or all of the following:
If you already have prior approval, please include the relevant prior approval application reference and confirm that it is the prior approval scheme that is to be constructed.
Please submit your details and information to planning.submissions@n-somerset.gov.uk.
The fee for a Regulation 77 application is set nationally by the government and costs £30.
Once we receive your application, we will contact you to pay the fee. The Regulation 77 application will only be considered valid once the fee has been paid. Please ensure you provide contact details so we can arrange payment.
Once the Regulation 77 application is deemed valid, the local planning authority will send a copy of the application to the appropriate nature conservation body. In most cases this will be Natural England.
It can take up to eight weeks, similar to a discharge of condition application. In most cases, we expect the application to be determined as soon as we have a response from the appropriate nature conservation body.
Where mitigation is required to be secured, or where applications take longer than the eight weeks, we may contact you to discuss and may seek your agreement for further time to determine the application.
If your Regulation 77 application is refused then you cannot begin your development using permitted development rights.
If the necessary approval under Regulation 77 is not secured before the development starts, the proposed development will not benefit from deemed planning permission.
If the development is deemed to be unlawful, enforcement action could be taken.
An application for retrospective planning permission may not receive approval unless appropriate mitigation is secured under any related habitat regulations assessment.