Planning consent: pre-application advice service

Overview

The City of Edinburgh Council is the planning authority for Edinburgh, responsible for assessing applications for planning consent. As part of this process, the Council’s Planning service currently offers pre-application advice. Pre-application advice is advice given to an applicant before they have made their application.

Pre-application advice can range from advice provided on the Council’s website to quick and simple advice provided via phone or email. More detailed advice for complex proposals may be provided over a series of meetings and workshops extending over many months.

It is important to note that pre-application advice is the professional opinion of the planning officer giving the advice, based on the information the applicant provides, and may not always be reflected in the final decision taken by the planning authority on whether or not to grant planning consent.

Planning applications are considered in the context of the Local Development Plan (LDP) and other material considerations. The LDP sets out the corporate vision for the development of the city. Pre-application advice benefits applicants, the community, and the Council by helping ensure planning applications are of the best possible quality, and maximising the applicants’ chances of receiving planning consent.

Why your views matter

Front loading the planning process, through a good pre-application process, should minimise the time taken to process the planning application. The Council therefore considers the pre-application advice service to be an important part of the wider planning process that is valued by applicants. However, the Council is also of the view that there is scope to improve and enhance the pre-application service. This consultation is being carried out to seek your views on how this can be achieved.