Pre application for householders

• Do you need confirmation that you do not need planning permission?
• Are your proposals acceptable to the Council?
• Do you still feel you need specific advice from the Council before you submit a planning application?
• Application Form
• What do you need to provide
• What fee do you need to pay?
• What advice will you receive?
• How long will it take?
• Status of advice
• Protected trees

Free advice is available through our self-assessment forms. Follow the steps carefully and answer each question accurately. Alternatively you can visit the Planning Portal website which provides advice in a different way.

Self Assessment Forms:

• House Extension (includes conservatories, garages etc. and alterations to include windows, verandas, balconies etc.)
• Outbuildings (includes sheds, greenhouses and garages as well as other ancillary garden buildings such as swimming pools, ponds, sauna cabins, kennels, enclosures (including tennis courts) and containers for domestic heating etc.)
• Porches (on an external door of a house.)
• Roof (includes additions or alterations to a roof including dormers, roof extensions, roof lights, reroofing etc.)
• Chimneys, Flues, Soil, or Vent Pipes
• Access, hardstanding and walls/fencing (includes drives, hardstandings, walls, fences, gates, access, dropped kerbs, etc.)

Planning Portal:

• Do you need permission?
• Common Projects
• Interactive House

Do you need confirmation that you do not need planning permission?

You may want personal reassurance that planning permission is not required or proof of this that you may wish to use if you sell your home at a later date. If so, you may formally apply to the Council for a Certificate of Lawful Development.

• Apply online via Planning Portal
• Print and post application form - Lawful Development Certificate for a Proposed use or development. - Lawful Development Certificate for an Existing use or operation
• Lawful Development Certificate - a users guide (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities publication)

A fee of £103 is required payable to the Council and you will need to submit the relevant application forms and drawings.

Even if you do not require planning permission you may still require a separate approval under the Building Regulations. For further information visit our Building Control website or contact us by phone on 0161 912 3015.

Are your proposals acceptable to the Council?

If your proposal needs planning permission, free advice is available through the Council’s approved guidelines on house extensions.Read the sections relevant to your proposal carefully. You should be able to gauge the Council’s likely reaction to your proposal and how it might be amended to make it acceptable to the Council.

• SPD4 – A guide for designing housing extensions

Do you still feel you need specific advice from the Council before you submit a planning application?

You may submit a request for pre-application advice together with a fee of £250 (inc VAT). But remember that when you subsequently submit a planning application, a fee of £206 will also be payable and therefore you should first consider whether you wish to move straight to the submission of a formal planning application.

Application Form

• Pre-application enquiry form - householders

What do you need to provide

To help us respond to your request, provide as much information as is possible about your proposal.

As a general guide we suggest that the following should be submitted:

• Completed pre-application enquiry form.
• Site location plan at 1:1250 scale.
• Elevational drawings of the proposed development, preferably to scale);
• Site layout and floorplan drawings of the proposed development, preferably to scale.
• Photographs and / or sketch drawings of the site and surroundings.

The correct fee pre-application fee must be paid in advance of any work commencing on your enquiry. Make cheques payable to Trafford Council.

What fee do you need to pay?

What advice will you receive?

You will receive a written response which will seek to provide clear guidance on the acceptability of your proposal. This guidance should indicate:

• Whether the proposal complies with the Council’s guidelines for house extensions and other relevant local planning policies.
• Whether the proposal is likely to be acceptable in terms of scale, massing, design, materials, impact upon the street scene, impact upon neighbours and adjoining uses, and heritage impacts.
• The likely acceptability of the proposal in terms of parking and access to the highway.
• Any likely constraints that might be imposed upon the development through the application of conditions.

How long will it take?

Within 5 working days of receipt of the pre-application enquiry form, fee and supporting information you will receive an acknowledgement confirming receipt of the request. The application will be allocated a unique reference number and a case officer will be assigned to the enquiry. Once the enquiry has been assigned to an officer you will be provided with their contact details.

We will aim to provide written advice within 42 days of receipt of all information.

Status of advice

All pre-application advice is based on the information you provide, and is given without prejudice to the formal consideration of any subsequent planning application, which would include a statutory consultation process being carried out. For this reason this we cannot offer any guarantees about the outcome of a planning application when providing advice.

All requests for advice are potentially subject to disclosure in response to Freedom of Information or Environmental Information Regulations requests. Confidentiality cannot therefore be guaranteed when using the service.

Protected trees

We also offer an advice service in relation to works on protected trees (those that are protected by reason of Tree Preservations Orders or by their siting within a conservation area), with two levels of advice available. Contact the Planning Service on 0161 912 3149 or send an email to trees.planning@trafford.gov.uk for more information. 

*Advice in relation to sites containing five or more trees will attract a higher fee, details of which are available upon request from the Council.