Background
Our client sought planning permission in a small Buckinghamshire town for the conversion of an out-of-town retail showroom into six apartments.
Challenge
The showroom was on a busy main road and surrounded by residential properties, with attendant concerns about traffic, parking and overlooking.
Solution
- We organised a meeting for our client with one of the local ward members followed by meetings with the occupants or owners of all the properties neighbouring the showroom, to go over the proposals, take note of any concerns raised and make sure the final plans took these concerns into account.
- Once the meetings were completed we prepared a short Statement of Community Involvement for submission with the application, listing the stakeholders we had met and explaining how the designs had changed as a direct result of those meetings.
- On the day the application was submitted to the council we sent copies of the design plans to each of the neighbours, making clear we were happy to meet again to go over any outstanding issues, or discuss over the phone.
- When the council had completed its own consultation on the application and uploaded residents’ comments onto its website, we contacted each of those residents directly to respond to the issues they had raised and ensure they were comfortable with the final plans.
Result
In a delegated decision, South Bucks District Council officers approved our client’s planning application.
