Advice & Applications
- Planning applications & appeals
- Permitted Development Rights
- Expert witness reports
- Agricultural Need Assessments
- Environmental impact assessments
- Full drawings for planning applications
- Design & access statements
- Agricultural tie removal
We have experience in dealing with complex planning projects that are designed to meet the needs of our clients on an individual basis. From the outset we work closely with you to ensure that we identify and understand your objectives and develop your project keeping these objectives to the fore.
It is often through planning and development that you can enjoy significant enhancements to the value and enjoyment of your property. Townsend Chartered Surveyors particularly specialise in rural planning issues in the South West, for commercial, agricultural and domestic planning proposals. We will visit your particular project and provide a full appraisal on the options available to you, what financial benefits they could bring and what the chances are of success.
Once a particular course of action is decided on, we can then provide the design & drawings plus all the necessary reports to supplement the planning application, and submit them to the Local Planning Authority (LPA). We are also experienced in pre-application negotiations with Planning Authorities and can advise on how to fine-tune applications to give the best possible chance of success, based on discussions with a Planning Officer, ideally on site. We are committed to seeing your application succeed and will adopt creative ‘out of the box’ approaches to help you realise your property’s potential. The supplemental reports required by LPAs can include Expert Witness Reports, Agricultural or Business Need Assessments and Environmental Impact Assessments. We can provide all these as well as full drawings for planning applications, Design & Access Statements and arranging for other necessary reports such as Wildlife and Traffic Surveys.
Rural planning applications are often turned down as a matter of course by LPAs. We have an excellent track record in submitting successful appeals by addressing the reasons for refusal, using our knowledge of the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework. We ensure that we are at the forefront of the ever-evolving planning framework by keeping up to date with recent changes to national and local policy.
In some cases planning applications are retrospective, where a client has not fully appreciated the need for permission before changing the use of a building or even erecting a temporary dwelling, and we are well practiced in dealing with Enforcement Notice Appeals and applying for Certificates of Lawful Development (CLEUD).
We have experience in obtaining consents for barn conversions to residential, holiday lets or workshops; new agricultural dwellings, greenfield site dairy units & other agricultural buildings, development sites and much more. We can also advise upon change of use applications, listed building consent, and on re-sale values which will inform you on whether the development is financially sound. Our property agency department can then offer a full marketing service, either when permission is granted or when the development is complete.
If you have the means to develop part of your property, perhaps for holiday lettings or a renewable energy installation, but are unsure as to the type of expansion your business would benefit from most, we offer a development planning and appraisal service. This will assess the nature of your business and consider the most appropriate type of development or diversification project suited to you. Diversification is now becoming an essential tool in increasing the productive capacity of UK farming and we are in a preeminent position within the rural community to help you identify how best to achieve this.
Hugh Townsend
FRICS. FCIArb. FAAV.
01392 823935
htownsend@townsendcharteredsurveyors.co.uk