Adding onto the list or planning tips recently posted (LINK HERE to all previous); here’s an important one to include and should be done at the very beginning.

I recommend this to all my clients; I have moved from whether the process is worthwhile to an essential activity – utilise the Council’s preplanning service.

You can save a lot of additional work and possible heartache if you run through your proposals with a planner from the Council in advance of submitting your application via using their pre-planning service.

Some Councils (as Mayo) allow you to drop in on without appointment (normally Wednesdays 9.30-12.30 in a respective local office) or through an appointment system (Roscommon & Sligo for example).

You can run through your proposals in an ‘informal’ method where it’s a discussion on the pro’s and cons of the potential development and items that are important for consideration. Or you can go down the ‘Formal’ pre-planning route where the drawings are submitted as a formal pre-planning request. The advantage of using this method is that the planner has to go and visit the site to give advice on whether they consider the proposals are acceptable. The disadvantage is that this can take a little while and there is no definite time scale for a response to be given (as there is with the 8 week period for the planning application.)