How to request pre-application advice
Seeking pre-application advice before you make a planning application can help to increase the chance of making a high quality planning application that is faster to process.
- Advice in person
We offer general planning advice over the phone via our free-to-use Duty Planning Officer Service.
You can speak with a SDNPA Planning Officer between 10am to 12pm, Monday to Wednesday on 01730 814810.
This service only relates to the areas of the following districts which are within the National Park:
- Adur & Worthing District Council
- Arun District Council
- Brighton & Hove City Council
- Horsham
- Mid-Sussex District Council
- Wealden District Council
To check if you are within one of these areas please see a map of the National Park.
Should your enquiry relate to one of the below, please contact the relevant authority:
- East Hampshire District Council
- Chichester District Council
- Lewes & Eastbourne District Council
- Winchester City Council
For more information on this service and what to expect, please read our guidance.
- Advice in writing
“Do I need Planning Permission?” requests can be submitted to us using our enquiry form, which can be found here. There is a charge of £25 for a response, as outlined in our pre-application fees schedule.
For more involved pre-application enquiries, we operate a 2 stage service as follows:
Stage 1: A desk top appraisal to assess the ‘in principle’ acceptability of a proposal against the key development strategy policies of the South Downs Local Plan (2019).
Detailed advice will not be provided at this stage, but we will advise you whether your proposals would be subject to mandatory biodiversity net gain or any other statutory matters.
We aim to provide this response within 3 weeks, once your enquiry has been validated.
Stage 2: These enquiries should be used where:
- you have received a positive stage 1 response and are requesting more detailed assessment
- Proposals for allocated sites
- Proposals within defined settlements
- Household enquiries
Stage 2 may include a site visit and a meeting. Any additional meetings or site visits will be charged. These must be paid before the meeting takes place.
We will aim to provide stage 2 responses within 8 weeks, unless additional meetings are required.
For our stage 1 and stage 2 fees and how to pay please see pre-application charges/how to pay.
Please note that pre-application enquiries are not published on the Authority’s website, until the subsequent relevant planning application has been submitted.
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Metric Check
This service checks to see whether a BNG metric is valid prior to submission. You need to submit a metric in the form of an excel spreadsheet.
This can then be checked to identify any errors and a detailed description of what these are will be provided.
This is subject to a £25 fee.
Minerals and Waste
These pre-application enquiries are dealt with in the same way as other pre-application enquiries with relevant fees for planning advice as above.
- What happens next?
The relevant local authority will acknowledge receipt of your pre-application submission, including whether additional details or fees are required, before it is allocated to a case officer.
Once allocated to a case officer, they will progress your enquiry based on whether it is a stage 1 or 2 enquiry.
All pre-application advice constitutes an informal opinion, based on the information you have provided and does not guarantee that planning permission will be granted following the submission of an application.
This advice will not prejudice any decisions that the South Downs National Park Authority, or other planning authorities, make on any future formal planning application.