Pre-application advice
Street Design Review Service
The Highland Council has introduced a Street Design Review Service which runs alongside Major Pre-applications. The service aims to provide detailed feedback on the road layout at the pre-application stage, to help align planning applications with the requirements for Road Construction Consent. This service is open to both Major and other large-scale housing developments which we define as any development of more than 20 houses. If you would like to find out more, contact majorpreapps@highland.gov.uk
Street Design Review (SDR) Meetings will be held as a virtual meeting, until further notice. A written SDR response pack will still be provided. In order to do this, we ask prospective developers to provide as much information as possible in advance of the proposed scheduled meeting date.
We encourage developers and their agents to engage in discussions with us for street design. Doing so should help to achieve a more efficient review of any formal Planning and Road Construction Consent Applications, whilst also helping to avoid conflicts between those two separate processes.
The more information you are able to supply, the more detailed our response will be.
The Process
After submitting your Application Form and supporting information, a date will be set for the SDR meeting. You will receive an invite with a Microsoft Teams Link for you to join the meeting. An agenda will be produced based on the topic areas you highlighted in your Application, which can include:
- Street Hierarchy and Forms
- Speed Control
- Drainage and Flood Management Strategy
- Public Transport Connectivity
- Active Travel Permeability and Connectivity
- Cycle and Car Parking (Residents and Visitors)
- Refuse Storage and Collection
- Other Topics as specified in your Application
- Issues identified by the applicant and their design team which may be unusual, problematic or contentious and where discussions in advance of a planning application would be useful.
Your submitted information will be made available to consultees invited to the SDR meeting for them to review prior to the meeting. The meeting will be chaired by a Council Officer and run as a workshop, with open discussion permitted on the topics being covered.
Feedback from Consultees will be compiled from both written representations received and discussions from the SDR meeting, with a written response being issued within 4 weeks from the date of the meeting.
To apply for this service please fill out our Street Design Review request form.
Charge
There is a fee to deliver this value added service, please check our main planning fees page on how much you need to pay.
Example Street Design Review advice pack
Disclaimer
Advice given by our officers does not constitute a formal decision by us with regards to any planning application or Road Construction Consent and, while it may be a material consideration, cannot be held to bind the council in its validation or formal determination of subsequent applications.
Freedom of information
Under the Freedom of Information Act, we may be asked to provide information regarding inquiries for Street Design Review and copies of any correspondence or advice provided. This information may only be withheld if its disclosure could prejudice commercial interests, inhibit the free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views during the planning process, or could prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. Those seeking Street Design Review advice should provide a covering letter that sets out the reasons why, and for how long, any information relating to the case needs to remain confidential.
It is at our discretion whether information can be treated as exempt from disclosure, and it should be recognised that the point of the legislation is to make information accessible unless there is a pressing reason not to. The passage of time may remove the need for exemption as information becomes less sensitive. Generally, notes and correspondence relating to pre-application discussion will not be treated as confidential once a planning application has been submitted and the case is in the public domain.