Services

Planning
Services

Our team offer a number of informative, valuable planning consultancy services that will streamline your building process. Understanding that the approach taken to a project often defines its success, we pride ourselves on our accessible consultancy and approachable attitudes.

Planning Appraisals
Inspecting a site in person, Cornwall Planning Group’s expert staff identify both potential challenges or opportunities at a given site. This puts us in the best position to open negotiations with our clients and any governing bodies, enhancing designs and creating solutions to these pitfalls. Planning appraisals make the entire building process run efficiently, giving realistic expectations for both current and future developments, whilst familiarising our team with your site to ensure the plans we produce make the most of your space.
Feasibility Assessments
Feasibility assessments are helpful for projects of a particularly large scale, or those more likely to require being closely monitored through the application process. Cornwall Planning Group can perform such studies in order to assess a site’s legal, technical and economic viability - culminating in a succinct evaluation of the potential success of a given plan.
Certificates of Lawfulness
Whilst not compulsory for developments to take place, Certificates of Lawfulness provide peace of mind that any proposed or existing on-location work is lawful. Cornwall Planning Group can assist in gaining certification from local planning authorities, ensuring that the current use of a building is legal (for planning purposes), or even establishing whether planning permission is required at all.
Appeals and Enforcement
Planning applications can be rejected for a number of reasons, the vast majority of which are easily amendable. Cornwall Planning Group will guide you through the appeal process, reworking your development proposal in the following ways:

• Addressing issues regarding refusal and resubmitting the plans.
• Appealing to the Planning Inspectorate, who will independently review the case and either stand by or overturn the original verdict.

Generally, small developments require a written representation to be submitted to the Inspectorate, whilst exceptions are made in some cases - where an informal hearing before a planning inspector will be required. For major proposals, a review by a public local inquiry is necessary.
Prior Approvals and Notifications
For projects such as residential extensions and barn conversions, planning consent is not required for work to take place. Instead, local authorities provide prior approval based off applications containing a written description, detailed drawings and supporting documents regarding the proposed developments - all of which Cornwall Planning Group can assist you with.
Environmental Impact Assessments
When proposing a major build, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required to evaluate the impacts of the development on its immediate environment. Objectively taking both positive and negative impacts into consideration, EIA’s are usually requested by local planning authorities to accompany building plans. Cornwall Planning Group can conduct such assessments in collaboration with other specialists.
Environmental Statements
Cornwall Planning Group can conflate the findings of an EIA in one easily understood summary. Outlining the likely environmental impact of a set of plans in full detail, alongside any proposed mitigations for negative effects, such a statement eases the process of gaining planning permission significantly.
Discharge of Planning Conditions
Any specified conditions attached to a set of planning permissions are often important constraints on their attaining consent, which Cornwall Planning Group can identify and monitor at your site. Falling into two categories - either requiring council approval prior to development or those capable of being discharged over the course of the build - permission can be withdrawn if these conditions aren’t properly outlined and followed.
Pre-Application Submissions and Advice
When submitting formal planning application, Cornwall Planning Group will work collaboratively with both local authorities and other developers, to identify and resolve any potential issues that arise within an application before it is submitted to the relevant council. Not only does this deepen our understanding of your application, it highlights its strengths and increases the chances of a successful submission, saving both time and money during the building process.
Local Plan Representations
Planning authorities are not legally required to alert landowners regarding either development restrictions or allocating building permission within any given area. Cornwall Planning Group pride ourselves in monitoring local development documents with our clients’ best interests at heart. Our experience means we anticipate and act quickly on changes that will promote your intended builds, to ensure no opportunity for development passes by.