Submitting an Application
Applications should be submitted via the Planning Portal. The application fee is payable at this point. Alternatively, the Council can accept paper applications.
The Government guidance website provides further details on submitting an application.
Validation
The Planning Portal will transfer the application to the Council where it will be registered, assigned an application number and validated.
Validation is an initial review of the plans, documentation and fee submitted with the application to ensure that it complies with national mandatory requirements and additional local requirements. Validation will occur within 7 days of receipt.
If the information submitted with the application is incomplete or incorrect, we will contact you with an invalid letter detailing the deficiencies with the application. You will have 14 days to provide the correct information, unless otherwise agreed. If the information is not received, your application may be returned to you. We will also contact you if we need agreement to amend the description of the development.
Once valid, the application and relevant documents are viewable on the Council’s website.
National mandatory requirements
An application for planning permission must be accompanied by:
- Plans and drawings
- Ownership Certificate and Agricultural Land Declaration
- Design and Access Statement (for some planning applications)
- Fire Statement (for some planning applications made on or after 1 August 2021)
All planning applications must be accompanied by a Community Infrastructure Levy form.
If someone else owns part or all of the land on which the planning application relates, you must fill in Certificate B, C or D on the Ownership Certificate and Agricultural Land Declaration, depending upon whether the owner(s) are known or not.
Local List
In addition to the national mandatory requirements, Epsom and Ewell have prepared a Local List which details additional supporting documentation. The Council is currently undertaking an update of the Local List which is being consulted from 25 April to 26 May 2024. The draft Local List and details about how you can comment can be found here.
All applications must include a location plan, usually to scale of 1:1250 with a north point, identifying roadway and red line outlining the site and that extends to a public highway. Where the road adjacent to the property is private, the red line should extend to the public highway and the Ownership Certificate signed to reflect this.
Plans will usually include a block plan (to a scale of 1:500), existing and proposed plans and elevations and sections (to a scale of 1:50 or 1:100) where necessary. A Design and Access Statement is not usually necessary for a householder application.
When submitting via the Planning Portal, Epsom and Ewell prefers that the plans are submitted as one pdf documents for the Location Plan, Block Plan, existing plans and proposed plans. It is not necessary to submit individual pdf documents.
For a householder application, we may require any or all of the following documentation before an application is made valid:
- Plan showing 45-degree lines to neighbouring properties (to measure likely sunlight and daylight impacts) or alternatively, a Daylight and Sunlight Assessment
- Volume calculations of the original, existing and proposed buildings (for development in the Green Belt)
- Heritage Statement (for development to a Listed Building or within a Conservation Area)
- Tree Survey and Arboricultural Impact Statement (where development occurs within the root protection area of a tree, regardless of whether the tree is TPO protected
- Preliminary Ecological Assessment (where there are works to potential bat habitats such as roofs and the eaves of a dwelling or Great Crested Newts may be harmed)
- Phase 2 (Entry and Re-Emergence) Bat Survey (where the Preliminary Ecological Assessment finds potential for bat roosts within part of the building to be impacted)
- Flood Risk Assessment (for any development in a Critical Drainage Area or Flood Zone 2 or 3)
- Plans showing parking spaces, existing and proposed access points, swept paths (to enable forward movement from the site), vehicular and pedestrian splays and height of fencing, to enable a full assessment of highway and transport related impacts
For a minor application, we would normally require the information listed above in addition to the following:
- Site of Block Plan showing boundary fencing, refuse storage and collection points, cycle storage and car parking spaces
- Planning Statement and/or Design and Access Statement (including hours of use/trading hours, number of staff and a materials schedule, where relevant)
- Transport Statement/Assessment
- Contaminated Land Report
- Biodiversity Net Gain Report and Metric (from April 2024)
- Archaeological Assessment
- Noise and Odour Assessment
- Drainage Report
For a major application, the following information would also be required:
- Affordable Housing Statement, including Viability Statement where necessary
- Marketing and Viability Assessment (for additional retail floorspace or loss of office space)
- Sequential Test
- Biodiversity Net Gain Report and Metric
- Access Statement
- Crime Prevention Statement
- Statement of Community Involvement (for larger schemes)
Confirmation of what documentation is required can be ascertained by reviewing the planning constraints by using Epsom and Ewell’s Where I Live mapping feature or by submitting a pre application.
Publicity
Once validated, most applications are consulted to neighbours. Applications that are not normally consulted include applications for non-material amendments, discharge of details and certificates of lawfulness.
For a householder application, only adjoining landowners are consulted. For larger or more contentious schemes, the scope of neighbour consultation is usually increased.
A site notice is installed by the Council for major development or where the proposal will materially affect a conservation area or the setting of a listed building. Site notices are not normally installed for householder applications.
It is also possible and generally recommend registering for email notifications for all new applications within your own user specified area or radius. You can register for this service here.
Section 6 of the Epsom and Ewell Statement of Community Involvement outlines all of the Council’s publicity procedures.
Viewing and commenting
Applications and relevant documentation is viewable on the Council’s website by using the application number specified on the notification letter, or by searching by the address or via the map.
The easiest way to comment on an application is online via the ‘Comments’ tab. The Council can also receive emails via planningsupport@epsom-ewell.gov.uk or letters addressed to the Development and Enforcement Manager, Epsom and Ewell Council, Town Hall, The Parade, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 5BY. However, comments emailed or posted to us may not reach the Planning Officer in time if received close to or after the closing date for submissions.
The Council allows 21 days for submissions to be received (longer to account for bank holidays). The closing date is noted on the notification letter and in the ‘Important Dates’ tab. You do not need to be formally consulted to comment on an application. Comments can be received after the 21-day period but only where the application has not yet been determined. If your comments have not appeared online after 7 days of submitting them, please email planningsupport@epsom-ewell.gov.uk and we will look into it for you.
Only material planning considerations can be considered in the assessment of an application. The following matters are not material considerations:
- Business competition
- Loss of view
- Devaluation of property
- Rights of way
- Covenants
- Other private rights
- Short term disturbance during implementation of a planning permission
- Maintenance of property
Any written comments, by law, must be placed on the public file. This means that:
- Your comments, and your name and address will form part of the planning application documents and will be published on our website
- Anonymous and in confidence comments will not be taken into account when we determine the application
- We will remove or redact any signature, email address and telephone number before publishing
- It may be possible for your name and address to appear in internet search results (over which we have no control).
We will consider any special circumstance of making personal details sensitive, for example, keeping confidential the address of a person who is the subject of harassment. If you feel that your comment should be kept confidential, please specify your reason in your representation.
Consultation
Depending on the type and scope of application, the Council will consult internally on matters relating to trees, heritage and conservation, land contamination, environmental health and ecology. We will not normally post these comments on the Council’s website but will contact you if there are issues that can be resolved or require further information.
For more detailed advice, the Council will also consult external bodies such as the Highways Authority, Lead Local Flood Authority, Environment Agency, Natural England, Historic England, Sport England, Fire Service and other bodies. We will usually post these comments on the website.
Determination
The statutory timeframes require that most applications are to be decided within 56 days of an application being made valid but not before the consultation period has concluded. Large or complex applications (major applications) should be determined within 13 weeks. Sometimes it is possible to agree an extension of time.
An application will be decided in one of the following ways:
- For the vast majority of applications, at staff level with manager sign off
- By the Planning Committee where it involves a major development, the applicant is a senior staff member or it is called into the Committee by a ward or committee member. Details relating to the Planning Committee, including the next committee agenda can be found here.
- By the Planning Inspectorate, where an appeal is made against an application that is not determined within the statutory period (non-determination appeal)
- In rare occasions, where the Secretary of State calls the item in.
The Epsom and Ewell Scheme of Delegations outlines the specifics of the decision making process, including how items are called into the Planning Committee.
Conditions
A decision notice will be issued to the specified planning agent by email once a decision is made, or to the applicant if there is no agent. The decision notice will contain conditions, including the approved details. Conditions will only be applied if necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the development, enforceable, precise and reasonable in all other respects.
The decision notice may also contain a requirement for additional details to be submitted prior to a certain stage of a development, usually pre commencement or pre occupation/use. These details may include:
- Construction Transport Management Plan
- Car Park Management
- Delivery/Servicing Plan
- EV charging details
- Travel Plan
- Building sustainability measures or Energy Statement
- Bat Licence and biodiversity enhancements
- Arboricultural Method Statement and Tree Protection Plan
- Hard and Soft Landscape Plan (including boundary treatments)
- Landscape Management Plan
- Remediation Scheme
- Archaeological Watching Brief
- Drainage Report or SuDS details
- Access Statement and Plan
- Lighting details
Legal Agreements
Occasionally, planning permission may be subject to the completion of a Section 106 agreement or Unilateral Undertaking to deal with planning obligations, including for such matters as:
- Public Transport or pedestrian Improvements
- Travel Plan Auditing fee
- BNG delivery and monitoring
- Delivery of Affordable Housing (and late-stage review) or Commuted Sum
- Street planting
- Car club provision
- Use of the outbuilding for incidental use.