Supporting regeneration for the people and the place of Trafford through planning expertise

The issue

Planning applications can be submitted to local authorities in unpredictable volumes and can range from small householder requirements to large regeneration projects. And councils need to be confident they can handle whatever is sent their way.

As with many local authorities around the country, planning resource and capacity, can often be limited. We can provide the support needed in situations of increased demand, reduced capacity or when specialist expertise is required.

Trafford Council asked us to work collaboratively with their planning team to process a major application for a regeneration project with huge economic benefits to the community.

Our approach

Our flexible procurement model gives residents peace of mind that no matter how big or small the project is, our experts can handle it.

An initial briefing with the council helped us understand any issues such as planning policy, council member interests, community or consultees issues, other technical, procedural, sensitivities or local knowledge-based matters. We could then familiarise ourselves with the proposal, planning history, planning policy framework etc. From here, we:

• carried out a site visit so we could get a clearer picture
• carried out an assessment to gather the views of residents and collated a summary of consultee and neighbour responses
• produced a report of interim issues, plus client instructions, for clarity
• instructed the council’s business support team, so residents and consultees were notified of the plans, which led to an assessment of additional responses
• prepared a robust committee report and list of planning conditions as well as heads of terms of a legal agreement for committee decision (if necessary)
• carried out a final quality check.

The impact

Working both remotely and on-site, we teamed up effectively with Trafford Council and supported the planning application process quickly and accurately. Our team produced robust planning committee reports, which clearly set out justifications, recommendations and conditions.