Planning fee increase 17 January 2018
Blackburn With Darwen Borough Council will be introducing a 20% increase in planning fees from Wednesday 17 January in line with new government regulations.
Planning applications submitted before 17 January and assessed as being valid by the Validation Officer will not be subject to the increase. However, anyone submitting a planning application which is and remains invalid up to 17 January will have to pay the increased fee. Full details of the changes.
Validation criteria for planning applications
The Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration recently approved the amended Local Validation Checklist on the 8th September, following the recent consultation on the changes that have been made.
The new validation checklist and summary document can be found below.
Before making a planning application we recommend that you firstly seek advice.
We encourage you to make and pay for your planning application on line to help speed up the process.
The benefits of this are:
- There is 'on line' guidance
- You can save and work on your application in draft
- You can submit at any time without the delays and cost associated with traditional postal systems
- You can attach all the necessary documents
- You can buy location (plans and site plans)
- You can pay electronically via planning portal when you make the application or telephone 01254 585960 to make a card payment over the phone
- You can archive your application with a download facility for storing on your own computer
- It saves you the cost of the paper
If you prefer to submit a hard copy you can download the form.
We require:
- 1 hard copy of the form and all documents
- A copy of all the documents on CD (we will not be able to process the application if this is not provided)
Planning information for agents
The Council receives a high proportion of new planning applications which are invalid when they are received because of errors on the forms or because information is missing from the submission. Most of the errors are avoidable. A letter was sent to agents informing them of a stricter approach and recommending the validation checklist below which has been adopted to improve the quality of submissions and reduce the time taken to validate applications. You can download a copy of the letter here.
How to pay
- Current planning application fees
- Applications submitted via planning portal can be paid for electronically via planning portal
- Card Payments: Please telephone 01254 585960 after 1pm. If you wish, you can telephone from the public phones in the reception area of Blackburn and Darwen Town Halls.
- Cheque payments: Please send to The Planning Department, Lower Ground Floor, Town Hall, Blackburn, BB1 7DY. Please make sure that you provide a reference, your name and site address so that we can link the payment.
We do not accept payments in person in the Town Hall It is not possible to apply online for the following:
Viability reviews
Find out about viable development.