A court of appeal judgement on 25 March 2011 has important and immediate
consequences for planning control over demolition. From this date, demolition of most types of building is now classed as
'development'.
"Permitted development" rights for demolition of buildings apply under Part 31 of the
Town and Country Planning (General Permitted
Development) Order 1995. However, these rights are subject to the developer submitting a
determination application to check whether the Council requires prior approval of the method of
demolition and any restoration of the site.
A determination application for demolition consent is required for the following classes of building:
- any freestanding building exceeding 50 cubic
metres (measured externally)
- any non domestic building adjoining a dwellinghouse
- any dwellinghouse
- any building which is a listed building
- any building in a conservation area
- any building which is a scheduled monument
You can make a determination application
online via the Planning Portal; or you can download paper forms (Form number 022) from our
Application Forms page. A fee is payable for these applications.
The applicant must display a site notice on or near the land on
which the building to be demolished is sited and must leave the notice in place
for not less than 21 days in the period of 28 days beginning with the date on
which the application was submitted to the council. You can download the site notice from our
Application Forms page. With the application, the applicant must also include a
declaration that the site notice has been displayed in accordance with the above requirements.
If the demolition is being undertaken in conjunction with a
planning application for redevelopment, a separate application and fee for the demolition aren't required. The proposed demolition works should be included within
the proposal and referred to in the description of the development.
However, please note that this type of application is in addition to any other form of
consent required for demolition such as: Listed Building Consent; Conservation
Area Consent; or a
building control application under the Building Act.
The court of appeal has also concluded that demolition
works come within the scope of the 'EIA Directive'. The effect is that where
demolition works are likely to have significant effects on the
environment, the local planning authority must issue a screening opinion on whether an environmental
impact assessment is required.
Please
contact Planning for further information, or to discuss proposals.
(The shortcut for this page is www.leicester.gov.uk/demolitioncontrol.)
