Planning and Building Control

Planning is interested in the way our towns, cities and countryside are developed. This includes the appearance of buildings and the use of land.

We aim to protect the natural (Trees) and historic (Listed Buildings) environments.

Building Control look at building works to ensure the sustainable use of fuel and water, the safety and health of people in or about those buildings.

For many works to buildings or trees, separate permissions will be required from us.

Update on our planning service - March 2025

The team have made considerable progress in reducing our backlog of applications and our current average timescales for deciding applications are continuing to improve.

Currently, on average 80% of non-major planning applications, including householder applications, are determined within the statutory determination period or an agreed extension of time.

The Statutory timescales depending on the type of application can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/determining-a-planning-application#what-are-the-time-periods-for-determining-a-planning-application

The Council takes performance very seriously and is in the process of committing significant resources with a view to continue improving our performance.

If you have a professional agent submitting the application on your behalf, all dialogue with case officers takes place through them. Please ask your agent for an update if your case has been allocated to an officer.

Our Planning phone lines (01727 866100) are open:

Monday to Friday 09:00 to 13:00

You can access our Planning Team, Monday - Friday 10am to 12pm

Please note, planning officers are only available to speak to applicants or their agents about their current "live" planning applications.

Planning officers are not available to take calls outside these times. If a planning officer has any questions about your application, they will contact you.

Our online service is available 24/7 where you can view and track current applications, explore the Local Plan, make new planning applications plus much more.

Please do not contact the planning department for an update on your application. You can monitor the website for comments and consultation responses on your application using the online search facility. See: https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/view-and-track-planning-applications

Any amendments during the course of the planning application will now go through our chargeable service, which is at the discretion of officers in accordance with our guidance. Should you wish to seek initial views on a proposal, please use our preapplication advice service. See: https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/planning-permission

To speed up the determination of your application, please note the following advice:

Please ensure your application includes all the necessary information.
Please do not submit updates or revisions to your application unless requested to do so by the Planning Officer.
Please submit current photographs of the site and surroundings to help your case officer assess the application.
Please put up a site notice if asked to do so and send additional photographs if requested. If you cannot do this, please let us know promptly – failure to display a site notice correctly will cause a delay in processing the planning application.

Thank you for your patience while our officers deal with a heavier than usual workload.

We now offer a new free online service for householders to check if works they are planning to their home will need planning permission – to find out more please see Do I Need Planning Permission?