Pre-application advice

[colmjude]

A discussion thread for information about the Pre-application advice section

See all open issues for the Pre-application advice section

[colmjude]

Summary from contributions:

• application is not going to be invalid if section not completed
• knowing pre-application advice sought is important (most people put must)
• attaching the pre-application advice report/document would be more useful than the applicant summarising it

This is our interpretation of the contributions, please do question, challenge, expand on the above.

It would be good to understand how this information/data is used if the only thing the applicant completes is ticking the box to say they have sought advice.

[JBakerL]

Agree bullets 1 and 2. Re bullet 3, this would need to be a validation requirement, either locally or nationally. I don't think the form could impose a requirement to upload the advice. In any event, the LPA would hold the advice already if they had given it. In some cases, pre-application advice includes sensitive information, so that would need to be managed too

[JBakerL]

Re "It would be good to understand how this information/data is used if the only thing the applicant completes is ticking the box to say they have sought advice.", this may start a check internally to locate the information, particularly if an officer has moved on. Some LPA systems will be better than others in terms of recording pre-app requests. The advice provided will also vary signficantly in scale between various schemes. Some proposals are presented to councillors before being formally submitted, so limiting what is required on the form is probably the best approach

[colmjude]

Information model

if application-types is empty then field must be included for all application types

field	description	application-types	required	notes
advice-sought	Has pre-application advice has been sought	hh;full;outline;demolition-con-area;lbc;ldc;reserved-matters;advertising;s73;approval-condition;non-material-amendment;extraction-oil-gas	MUST	Boolean ()
officer-name	Name of officer who dealt with pre-app advice	hh;full;outline;demolition-con-area;lbc;ldc;reserved-matters;advertising;s73;approval-condition;non-material-amendment;extraction-oil-gas	MAY
reference	Reference for pre-application advice application	hh;full;outline;demolition-con-area;lbc;ldc;reserved-matters;advertising;s73;approval-condition;non-material-amendment;extraction-oil-gas	MAY
advice-date	Date applicant received the advice, in YYYY-MM-DD format	hh;full;outline;demolition-con-area;lbc;ldc;reserved-matters;advertising;s73;approval-condition;non-material-amendment;extraction-oil-gas	MAY
advice-summary	Summary of the advice received	hh;full;outline;demolition-con-area;lbc;ldc;reserved-matters;advertising;s73;approval-condition;non-material-amendment;extraction-oil-gas	MAY	is this necessary if they have provided the reference?

[JBakerL]

Agree - establishing if advice has been sought should be the only "must". Yes, the advice summary box is necessary, or the option to refer to attached advice, because there may not be a reference number and/or advice may not have been received before the application was submitted. This is increasingly common as LPAs become more stretched and some PINS costs decisions have been awarded against LPAs for not engaging, I understand. Therefore, I suggest there are two dates needed here:
Date request submitted (must be prior to date of application) - this would be a 'may' field, unless it is triggered only if the advice-sought box is ticked 'yes', then it could be a 'must; and
Date the applicant received the advice - a 'may' field
This will allow a clear record of the submission of a request for advice and draw attention to attempts to engage that have not been fulfilled