Planning application information to be made publicly available
In order to comply with our statutory obligations we must make certain details about planning related applications available in the form of a public register. Regulations also permit and actively encourage this information to be made available online. This includes the name and address of the applicant and, where an agent is acting for the applicant, the name and address of that agent.
We will publish a copy of your completed application form and relevant supporting documents and drawings on our website. We will also publish any public representations/comments on our website, although no personal information will be shown. If the council’s decision on the application is appealed, the Government’s Planning Inspectorate, who considers the appeal, will ask for copies of all application correspondence and they may also publish comments online.
The law requires us to maintain the information on the register of planning applications indefinitely, and as such certain information relating to applications will be available on our website permanently. Public comments and representations on applications do not form part of the statutory register.
Supporting documents may also sometimes contain personal data. Any such data including information about your health or personal financial circumstances will be removed prior to publication.
We also reserve the right not to publish any documents containing perceived defamatory, libellous, insulting, offensive, abusive or obscene comments.
In order to ensure that no unnecessary personal data is published online, please consider the following:
- We strongly recommend that you indicate any documents (in whole or in part) containing personal information that you they do not want to be seen by the public. However, we have a legal duty to make certain details available, so we cannot guarantee that such requests will be approved
- Please do not include any information in your application, comments or supporting documents which is not required for the planning process
- In particular please refrain from sending us sensitive information such as health or medical details where these are not required
- Please also refrain from including personal information about other people in your correspondence with us
- When sending us comments or objections by email, we recommend that you include your comments in an attachment, so we can avoid publishing personal details such as your email address and
- We do not require a hand written signature on any correspondence you send, and recommend that you do not include this so as to avoid the possibility of this being copied for possible use in identity theft