Approval of details reserved by condition

Most planning permissions and listed buildling consents are granted subject to conditions. Conditions are used to ensure that development that may not be considered acceptable would become acceptable. Some conditions require further submissions which are then considered and approved (or refused) subject to certain criteria which would normally be contained in the reason for the condition.

Some conditions require you to submit details about particular aspects of the development and others restrict certain things you can do as part of the development. The approval of details reserved by conditions is also known as 'discharging conditions.'

A typical condition requiring the submission of further details may read
'Details of the glazing to be used on the ground floor rear window should be submitted to and approved in writing by the Executive Director, Planning and Borough Development prior to the commencement of the development'.

A typical condition restricting things you can do as part of the development may read
'The roof of the rear extension hereby approved shall not be used at any time as a roof terrace without the prior approval of the Executive Director, Planning and Borough Development'.

Any condition that requires the submission of details must be 'discharged' in accordance with the wording of the condition. In most cases this is before any works starting on site. Occasionally, some conditions can be discharged prior to the relevant part of the development taking place. Please consult your decision notice for the exact wording of your conditions.

In order to discharge a planning condition, you must submit the details, along with a completed application form and the appropriate fee to the planning department.

All approval of details applications incur a fee with the exception of conditions imposed on listed building consents. It may take up to eight weeks to receive a decision on a discharge of condition application.

Approval of details reserved by conditions application form

You can discharge more than one planning condition at a time as long as you make it clear on your application form which conditions you are discharging. In addition, you must provide the relevant details required for each condition.

A fee is payable per discharge of condition application. Therefore, if you put all the conditions that need to be discharged on one application, you only need to pay one fee. However, if you choose to discharge the conditions at different times then you must pay for each request.

Last updated: 29 November 2019