Pre-application Planning Advice for Household Development

• All Pre-applications must be submitted via our online form on this page. Please do not submit pre-applications via email or post, as they will not be processed.

Our pre-application enquiry service covers all domestic extensions and alterations within the curtilage of a residential dwelling.  Examples of where you should use this service are if you are proposing to:

• extend your home
• add a dormer window
• construct an outbuilding
• install a new driveway
• add a porch
• make changes to your boundary treatment
• make any other external alteration to your property

If you are proposing to create a new dwelling or would like advice on commercial development, or if your home is a listed building and you wish to make internal alterations only, please see our Commercial Development, New Residential Development and Listed Buildings page.

• This document is available as a PDF here.

Quick Links:

• Why submit a pre-application enquiry?
• What do I need to submit?
• What will the Council provide in response to my enquiry?
• How do I submit my enquiry and how do I pay?
• Guidance on submitting information
• Will my enquiry be confidential?
• Disclaimer
• Customer Feedback

Why submit a pre-application enquiry? 

Pre-application advice helps applicants through the planning process, to make sure that high quality development can be delivered.  The service is not compulsory but the Council actively encourages pre-application discussions for all development before submission of an application for formal consideration.

By using our pre-application service you can find out whether a specific household development would require planning consent and if it does, whether your proposal is likely to be considered acceptable.  

Submitting a pre-application enquiry can:

• reduce risk by highlighting issues affecting the scheme at an early stage;

• identify alternative solutions;

• help to reduce time and costs;

• provide guidance on the information required for any subsequent planning application.

In addition, we can:

• advise on whether any third parties should be consulted separately (such as the Environment Agency);

• provide a better understanding of timescales, and administrative and committee processes.

For general advice about extending or improving your home and advice on what will need planning permission, please see our guidance here.

What do I need to submit with my pre-application enquiry? 

In order to obtain the best from our service it is recommended that you submit as much information as possible to support your enquiry.  We appreciate that there are costs associated with producing plans and supporting documents. However, the better the quality of your submission, the more helpful and detailed we can be with our response.

The table below sets out what to submit with your enquiry.

What will the Council provide in response to my enquiry?

Once you have submitted your enquiry it will be checked by our validation team to ensure that the required information and fee has been submitted.  Your enquiry will then be passed to a case officer for review and assessment, and any relevant consultation will begin.

In response to your enquiry we will:

• Provide advice on whether your proposal requires planning permission and/or listed building consent;
• If the proposal requires consent, advise on the design proposed, highlighting key issues that may need to be reviewed;
• Advise on the most appropriate form of application to submit to the council; positive and negative aspects of the development;
• Provide advice relating to validation requirements and any supporting information required should you wish to progress to an application.

How do I submit my enquiry and how do I pay?

All pre-application enquiries must be submitted via our online form.  See link below.

Please do not submit pre-application enquiries via email or post, as they will not be processed.

In order to submit online you must become a registered user first.  The login details required are separate to those you may have used to register with the planning portal but it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to complete registration.   

• You can register your details here. 

Please note that you will receive an email to confirm your registration.  Please check your junk/spam folder if you do not see this appear in your inbox.

Once you are a registered user, you are ready to submit the form.  You can include any plans and supporting documents at this stage and pay the fee at the same time.  The whole process shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to complete.

Please ensure that each document you attach to your submission is no larger than 20mb in size.

Please submit documents in pdf format wherever possible as this will assist with the validation process.

Click here to start your pre-application enquiry.

(Log in to the Site, then go to Planning > Planning Home > then click "Submit Preapplication"

If you need any technical help using the application form, you can contact us here.

Paying the fee

To process your application quickly, we would recommend that you pay the fee when you are submitting your pre-application enquiry. Your pre-application enquiry won't be processed until payment has been made.

If you are submitting a pre-application enquiry on behalf of someone else, and they are paying the fee, they can make the payment here.  Please select 'Pay Pre-application fee' from the list.

If paying by phone, please call our Payment Line on 0191 277 7208.  Please give the reference number you receive when submitting the pre-application online form.

If you are unable to make a card payment, and require a BACS transfer, this will take longer for your pre-application to be accepted.

For BACS payments, our payment details are: Lloyds Bank, Account Name: Newcastle City Council Account, Sort Code: 30-93-71, Account: 63352060

General

• Guidance on submitting information
• Will my enquiry be confidential?
• Disclaimer
• Customer Feedback

Guidance on submitting information

You can find out more about what information would be required for a formal application by viewing our validation checklist . This will provide guidance on the type of information needed to assess the application when it is submitted formally, and therefore is a guide to what information you should consider providing at pre-application stage.

You can attach plans/documents to the online form when you submit your enquiry.

To assist with the processing and assessment of your enquiry:  

• Please ensure that each document is no larger than 20mb in size;
• Please submit all information required for your initial submission together rather than in stages as this will assist with validation and consultation. 
• Please submit documents in pdf format wherever possible as this will assist with the validation process.

Will my application be confidential?

If you believe your proposal should remain confidential you will need set out reasons why and for how long it should remain so. Without this it will be assumed that the information will not need to be treated confidentially.

You may also want to talk to your neighbours before you apply for pre-application advice.

We will not normally make pre-application enquiries public.  However, we may be obliged to reveal details under a Freedom of Information request.  Each request is assessed on its own merits.

Please read our Privacy Notice which sets out how we use information as a Planning Department. 

Disclaimer

The Council will make every effort to ensure that the advice given in the pre-application process is as accurate as possible.

However, any advice given by council officers for pre-application enquiries does not constitute a formal response or decision of the Council with regards to any future planning applications and, whilst it may be a material consideration, cannot be held to bind the council in its validation or formal determination of a subsequent application.

If an application is subsequently submitted which fails to take on board advice given by officers, then the council may refuse it without further discussion with the applicant or their agent.

Customer Feedback

If you have recently applied for pre-application advice, you may wish to give us comments and feedback about the service. We're keen to consult all planning applicants about whether they are satisfied with the service provided, and so we'd like to hear your views.

Please complete a short questionnaire if you would like to take part in this survey.