Your responsibilities

After planning permission is granted, you will still need to liaise with us as there may be conditions attached to your planning permission or listed building consent. 

Planning conditions are likely to have been applied to your approval and these conditions will limit and control the way in which the development can take place.

Conditions are generally included to ensure the development is acceptable, in planning terms, and these conditions can range from you having to specify the types of materials which are to be used, controlling the opening hours to a restaurant to protect amenities, details of soft and hard landscaping and details of respective boundary treatment.

In addition to conditions, we may also attach informatives, these will seek to guide you to other consents that may be necessary such as for example a Section 278 Agreement for works to a highway or seeking Building Regulations approval. A full list of conditions for each development will be specified in the officer’s report and attached to every decision notice which we issue.

Complying with conditions

Once you have received your planning decision notice you will need to check it carefully as it may require you to provide information to us before any commencement of development on-site, including any demolition works. If you are unsure of any information placed on the decision notice, please contact us quoting the reference number.

• Some conditions require you to submit further details or information and for you to tell us when they have been done.
• Some conditions must be complied with before the development is started, while some regulate how the work is undertaken.
• Some conditions require actions before a building is occupied or used.
• Some conditions will seek to regulate how the completed development is to be used or control possible changes in the future, for example, removal of permitted development rights.

You have the right to appeal the imposition of a condition if you feel it is unreasonable. You can lodge an appeal within 12 weeks or six months (for non-householder developments) of the date of the decision to the Planning Inspectorate. You can contact us if you want to explore this further as if you start work during an appeal process it may make the planning consent invalid.

Failure to comply with conditions

Failure to discharge conditions at the correct time can invalidate your planning permission. For example, starting work on-site without complying with the pre-conditions may void your permission and can lead to enforcement action.

If you do not comply with the approved drawings or planning conditions, the following consequences may apply:

• A need to re-submit a full planning application which may incur further costs and conditions and even a refusal of permission.
• A record on Land Charge Searches that the development is unauthorised and possibly subject to enforcement action.
• Potential difficulties in raising funds against, or selling of the land or building in question.
• The serving of a Temporary Stop Notice, closing down all development works on the site.
• The issuing of a Breach of Condition Notice.
• The issuing of an Enforcement Notice.

Please note that the above list is not exhaustive.

Approval of details reserved by condition

An application for approval of details reserved by a condition will be necessary where a condition in a planning permission or a listed building consent requires details of a specified aspect of the development, which was not fully described in your original application.

These details need to be submitted for approval before the development can begin. As such, an application for approval of details reserved by a condition is not an application for planning permission or listed building consent.

Confirmation of compliance

Planning conditions and Section 106 / Section 52 obligations

We can confirm if planning conditions have been complied with or not. This can help when you are looking to buy or sell a property. To request this service, please apply in writing via email, to our Technical Support team, plan.devcon@stevenage.gov.uk, and provide the following details:

1. Planning application reference number.
2. Number of conditions, as shown on the decision notice.

Fees

Once your request has been received, we will contact you to arrange payment. The fees for requesting written confirmation for compliance of conditions, in accordance with Government Regulations, for written confirmation of compliance with conditions are:

• £34 for all householder development (for example, extensions to dwelling houses)
• £116 for all other types of development.

From the 6 December 2023, in accordance with updated Government Regulations, the above fees will increase as follows:

• £43 for all householder development (for example, extensions to dwelling houses)
• £145 for all other types of development.

These fees will then increase every financial year from 1 April 2025 in accordance with the Governments Fee Regulations. A copy of the updated Planning Fee Regulations can be viewed on the Legislation.gov.uk website.

Note: These fees are VAT exempt.

The fee is per request and application.

We aim to send our response in 10 working days. However, some older files are stored off-site and it will take longer to respond to these.

Section 106 / Section 52 obligations

There are no additional charges for providing confirmation for compliance of Section 106 / Section 52 obligations. This information will be provided if requested as part of any written request to the council’s Planning Department regarding compliance of planning conditions.

Why are we charging for this service?

In accordance with Government Planning Fee Regulations, the council as Local Planning Authority can charge for providing confirmation whether a condition has been complied with. This is to help cover some of the council’s costs to review the requisite planning application file and legal documentation and provide a written response to your request.