Apply for planning permission
Amending your planning application
Making an amendment to a live planning application
We use the word amend to mean a change to your application. If you want to amend your application after you've submitted it, contact your case officer to explain what you want to change. Remember that you can only do this before you've received a decision about your application, and that it might delay how quickly you get your decision from us. Find out more information about our planning application amendment service.
Have you been told to make an amendment by your case officer?
Sometimes your case officer will suggest an amendment to your development. We will usually do this to make the development acceptable so that we can grant planning permission.
Making an amendment after determination
If you want to amend your application after you have already received our decision, you can do so by:
- making a non-material amendment application for very small changes
- for material amendments, making an application to vary the conditions relating to the consented development
If you're not sure which type of application you should submit, you can ask us for pre-application advice.
What is a material amendment?
The government does not provide a definition of ‘material’ amendments. This means that each local authority has to decide their own definition. We will decide if an amendment is 'material' by looking at the whole granted development, and looking at any other changes we have already allowed to it.
We assess each application on a case by case basis and there is no set list of the types of changes that we think are 'material'. However, when deciding if changes are 'material', we will usually think about the following questions:
- would the change increase the size of the development?
- would the change involve a change of use to any part of the property?
- would the change harm neighbour amenity?
- would the change be against any of our planning policies?
If we think that the proposed changes would not be 'material', you might need to re-apply for planning permission.
Page last updated: 21 November 2023