Planning consultation, comments and applications

The opinions of local people, organisations and businesses are of great importance to the Council when deciding planning applications and are always considered carefully. Comments may be made by anyone, regardless of whether they were consulted by letter, saw a site notice, a newspaper advert or were told by a neighbour.

The majority of planning applications receive publicity after they reach the Council. These are the steps you can expect planning officers to take. We check that all publicity required by law is done. The regulations allow some flexibility, but the Council is fully committed to effective community engagement, choosing those methods it considers most effective and carrying out additional publicity.

Letters are almost always sent to neighbours advising them of proposals likely to affect them. All those directly adjoining the proposed development will be notified. If a proposal may have a wider impact, the planning officer will decide how to give wider publicity, which is often a combination of some additional letters and site notices.

For large-scale developments and those affecting Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas, we public notices in the Richmond and Twickenham Times and post site notices.

Before you express an opinion on a proposal it is usually helpful for you to be able to see the detailed plans of the proposed scheme. The plans can be viewed at the Civic Centre between 9pm and 4.30pm Monday to Fridays or your local library for applications in the immediate vicinity.

Details of planning applications, including drawings.

The Council is committed to involving everyone in the Borough in the planning process. Those groups who may face barriers to the planning service, such as ethnic minorities, the elderly and people with disabilities, may have difficulty in visiting the Civic Centre or their local library. In such circumstances we may be able to arrange to lend a copy of the plans or visit the person at home. We will assist you to enable your voice to be heard. If this is the case for you then please contact the planning department as soon as possible. You can telephone 0845 612 2660 or email envprotection@richmond.gov.uk for more information.

Documents submitted for consideration

All representations received have to be placed on the public file, so any comments made "in confidence" cannot be considered and will be returned. Because the process has to be transparent and open, anonymous comments will also not be considered. Apart from this, we will consider all representations, providing they relate to relevant planning issues, what we call "material considerations".

Please note that documents submitted for consideration in respect of planning applications (for example: documents submitted as part of an application and representations relating to an application) are made available for inspection by the public, and can be viewed on the Council's web site, including personal information such as names and addresses. If you do not wish your email details or telephone numbers to be viewed please omit these or enclose on a separate piece of paper marked 'sensitive'. Avoid any details that could compromise your own security such as holiday dates or times when you will not be on the premises. On electronic communications do not show your email address or phone number if you do not want these to be viewed. We will always write to you if there is a problem.

You may comment in the following ways:

If you have difficulty with this please contact the Planning Support Centre on 0845 612 2660 who will be able to help.

In writing

Please quote the reference number of the application and your own address so that we may write to you if necessary. Letters should be addressed to:

The Planning Department
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
2nd Floor Civic Centre
Twickenham TW1 3BZ.

By email

You may email your comments to us at envprotection@richmond.gov.uk

Online

When viewing the application online the page has a facility to comment online located at the top right of the page.

You can view an application and make a comment here or just make a comment online (you will need to quote the planning application number).