Advice on Planning for B&B Owners

Planning

Are you proposing to improve your business by adding or altering a building? Will it require 'planning permission'? If so you need to be aware that the guidance on planning permissions for Tourism businesses will change on September 1 2006.

It is the role of your local authority to determine planning applications. Their decision is based on a set of policy guidance notes provided by government. These notes are known as PPGs (Planning Policy Guidance) some examples of which are:

• PPG 1 General Policy and Principles
• PPG 2 Green Belts
• PPG 4 Industrial and Commercial Development and Small Firms
• PPG 7 The Countryside and the Rural Economy
• PPG 121 Development Plans and Regional Planning Guidance
• PPG 13 Highways Considerations in Development Control (to be revised shortly)
• PPG 17 Sport and Recreation
• PPG 19 Advertisement Control
• PPG 20 Coastal Planning

This list is by no means exhaustive.

Whilst the new guidance does have it roots in larger tourism related planning proposals individual applications will also be assessed in the light of the new guidance.

These national guidance notes can be embellished by your individual local authority's special circumstances. What your local authority cannot do is ignore these national guidance notes or ignore any aspect of their content if they relate to a planning application. They cannot change these national PPGs.

If local authorities do make any additions to the PPGs because of special local circumstances they are required to include those changes in a 'Local Plan' most recently called a 'Regional Spatial Strategy'. They can change any conditions they add to national guidance but only after going through a consultation process.

On September 1 2006 the PPG relating to national advice for Tourism, PPG 21 will no longer apply. Instead a 'GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE ON PLANNING FOR TOURISM' will become the document which all local authorities will have to refer to in seeking guidance for tourism related planning applications.

The guidance is designed to:

• ensure that planners understand the importance of tourism and take this fully into account when preparing development plans and taking planning decisions;
• ensure that those involved in the tourism industry understand the principles of national planning policy as they apply to tourism and how these can be applied when preparing individual planning applications.
• ensure that planners and the tourism industry work together effectively to facilitate, promote and deliver new tourism developments in a sustainable way.

The guidance it is stated should be read in conjunction with other PPGs namely:

• PPS1 Delivering Sustainable Development
• PPG2 Green Belts
• PPG3 Housing
• PPG4 Industrial, Commercial Development and Small Firms
• PPG5 Simplified Planning Zones
• PPS6 Planning for Town Centres
• PPS7 Sustainable Development in Rural Areas
• PPG8 Telecommunications
• PPS9 Biodiversity and geological Conservation
• PPS10 Planning for Sustainable Waste Management
• PPS11 Regional Spatial Strategies
• PPS12 Local Development Frameworks
• PPG13 Transport
• PPG14 Development on Unstable Land
• PPG15 Planning and the Historic Environment
• PPG16 Archaeology and Planning
• PPG17 Planning for Open Space, Sport and Recreation
• PPG18 Enforcing Planning Control
• PPG19 Outdoor Advertisement Control
• PPG20 Coastal Planning
• PPS22 Renewable Energy
• PPS23 Planning and Pollution Control
• PPG24 Planning and Noise
• PPG25 Development and Flood Risk