Planning services

All our officers are still remote working from home at this time.

Due to high caseloads and staff shortages, there is currently a backlog of applications in the Development Management teams.  Therefore, both the Duty Planning Service and Pre-Application Service have been suspended temporarily and we ask for your patience during this period. Pre-Application requests submitted before close of business on Thursday 14^th April 2022 will still be processed, but may take longer than advertised, your case officer (as advised in your acknowledgement letter) will be able to advise you of expected timescales to complete your pre-application request.

The national planning portal website at www.planningportal.co.uk contains many useful guides, information and an interactive house to assist you in the majority of planning related queries. In addition, there are a number of Planning Consultants in the local area who are able to provide you with advice along with pre-application support.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you and assure you we are taking steps to resolve these issues and re-introduce these services as soon as possible.

If you have a general planning enquiry, we recommend you review the links below and the national planning guidance available via the planning portal website (www.planningportal.co.uk) and utilise their extensive library of planning knowledge and legal requirements. However, if you are unable to resolve your query via the planning portal, you can email your enquiry to planning.nbc@westnorthants.gov.uk where we will review it and endeavor to direct you to the relevant guidance, however please be aware that due to the high workloads in the team at this time you may have to wait up to 28 days for a response.