Departmental Structure

The Council's Planning staff are based at the Civic Centre in Pershore. They are responsible for delivering a wide range of planning and building control services.

The different sections are:

• Development Control
• Building Consultancy
• Heritage
• Policy
• Process
• Customer Service Officers

Development Control

The Development Control Service is the means by which the Council, acting as the Local Planning Authority, controls and monitors the type, scale and location of development and the use of land within Wychavon. The team deals with applications, and related appeals, for planning permission, listed building, conservation area and advertisement consents. It investigates permitted development, breaches of planning control and gives advice on planning and related matters.

We are committed to facilitating appropriate forms of development, which meets the current defined needs of Wychavon as defined in the relevant Local Plan, whilst protecting the built and natural environment for the benefit of future generations.

This section deals with the following matters:

• Providing planning advice to the public on development control matters
• Give Pre-Application  (129.00 KB) advice to our customers.
• Processing planning applications
• Dealing with planning appeals
• Investigating and enforcing breaches of planning control
• Processing applications for Listed Building Consent, Conservation area Consent, applications for works to preserved trees etc

Building Consultancy

This section deals with the following matters:

• Providing advice to the public on Building Regulations
• Processing applications under Building Regulations
• Dealing with contraventions of the Building Regulations
• Emergency actions to deal with dangerous structures
• Providing advice on planning applications in relation to technical issues

More information is available through our Building Regulation pages or contact us via:

Telephone: 01386 565384 / 565388
E-mail: building.consultancy@wychavon.gov.uk

Write or call in person to:

Building Consultancy
Wychavon District Council
Civic Centre
Queen Elizabeth Drive
Pershore
Worcs. WR10 1PT

Opening times: Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm.

Heritage

This section deals with Wychavons built and natural heritage and covers the following broad areas of work:

• Providing specialist advice on listed buildings, conservation areas, protected trees, hedgerows and the landscape
• Provision of landscape, streetscape and urban design advice to the Council
• Implementation and management of conservation, landscape and other enhancement schemes
• Monitoring of listed buildings
• Evaluation of conservation areas and the preparation of assessments of character and proposals to enhance those areas
• Administering grant aid in relation to conservation grants and town and rural enhancement schemes
• Development, implementation and management of countryside access and recreation initiatives

Policy

This section has a wide range of work including the following:

• Ensuring that the Council has up to date local plan coverage for all the district
• Developing policy advice on a wide range of issues
• To advise the Council on the impact of policies prepared by other bodies

Process

This section deals with the following matters:

• Providing administrative support to the processing of planning applications
• Maintaining the statutory register of planning applications
• Maintaining and improving administrative procedures for the department

Planning's Customer Service Officers

Customer Service Officers are an additional resource to our Development Control Officers. Their role is to support the professional teams and provide customer support on technical planning matters such as dealing with Permitted Development enquiries and “most frequently asked questions”.

There are 8 Customer Service Officers dealing with Development Control, Building Consultancy, Heritage and Policy enquiries.

Should you visit the Planning Reception at the Civic Centre in Pershore or telephone Planning's Service Centre (01386 565565 between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday) you will be met by one of our Customer Service Officers who will be able to answer the majority of your enquiries.