The Urban Design Officers can help you be commentating and ensuring High Quality Design by providing comments on enquiries, pre-applications. Alongside this, the Urban Design Officers are available by negotiating with developers, applicants and/or agents in regard to their application. Furthermore, the Urban Design Officers work in conjunction with the New Homes Team in regard to developments within the district.

Within the Planning Process, Urban Design Officers are available from the initial stages, such as enquiries or pre-applications, to reinforce the guarantee that all applications meet the requirements for high levels of design. This is set out through the High Quality Places SPD.

For further information regarding the planning process, please visit the Planning pages for advice regarding pre-applications and policy guidance. Additionally, please see further information on the Planning Portal.

Alongside this, the Urban Design team may put forward applications to the Design Review Panel for further comments. More information on this can be found through the Design Review Panel and the Design Review Panel pages.

Guidance through the Design: Process and Tools, states that well-designed places can be achieved through a collaborative and proactive approach during each state of the planning process.

According to the Design: Process and Tools guidance, pre-application discussions provide an opportunity for applicants and developers as well as the local authority to discuss the intentions of the application and the design policy guidance.

Local design guides set out the general design principles and expectations for development proposals in the area and are designed by the local planning authority and/or neighbourhood planning groups. There are vital to communicate the local design requirements and are stated by the National Planning Policy Framework as a necessary visual tool. They should be informed by 10 important characteristics of good places stated within the National Design Guide and are most effective when used alongside additional relevant design tools.

According to the Design: Process and Tools guidance, Masterplans are primarily produced by local authorities in order to help clarify design expectations from the early stages of a planning application. They also set out a clear vision of the site and identify any requirements for the developer contributions or other investments. Developers will also produce Masterplans to help demonstrate their vision for a site, assess any design options and to also engage the local authority and community in pre-application discussions. In addition, Masterplans may be adopted by local authorities as supplementary planning documents in order to provide weight in decisions on an application. As of this, a great deal of care should be taken to ensure that Masterplans are viable and well understood in order to avoid misleading the public through inaccurate details or elements that have not been decided upon.

Guidance through the Design: Process and Tools, states that Design Codes are a set of illustrated design requirements that provide specific, detailed parameters for the physical development of a site or area. These should be in proportion and build upon vision, for instance a Masterplan or other design and development framework, and should pay attention to the 10 characteristics of good places stated within the National Design Guide.

Design Codes can be produced by the developer or the local authority, but are most effective when prepared in partnership in order to ensure agreed design outcomes. Design Codes can be applied to all types of development and can be adopted as supplementary planning documents, or appended to a Neighbourhood Plan, Community Right to Build Order or Neighbourhood Development order.

The Design: Process and Tools, guidance emphasises the importance in training and support for Planning Committee members to ensure they have the understanding of relevant design policies and guidance in order to allow them to assess proposals effectively. From this, the guidance highlights the need to keep members up to date on design issues as part of pre-application discussions.

Planning applications seek to understand the scale and nature or the intended development; therefore, fully detailed proposals are a requirement. In conjunction with this, design is considered within the application in order to assess the environmental impact assessment or the Design and Access statement.

A Design and Access Statement is a report which accompanies applications for planning permission and applications for Listed Building Consent. They allow applicants to detail how the proposed development is suitable for the site and its surrounding setting/local character as well as stating how the design principles will be applied in order to achieve ensure a high quality design. These will aid in the decision making process by a allowing for a greater understanding of the analysis behind a development.

The vision and objectives of a plan will state the type of place aimed through the development. These will also state the contribution to the sustainable development of an area. The inclusion of strategic policies, will set out these expectations of design on a broader level – i.e. the future character and role of a town centre. They may also set key design targets and explain how the future masterplanning is expected to go forward.