Selby District Council's planning advice service will resume as normal from next week (Tuesday 17 July), following a decision about the way in which applications are assessed.

The Council had temporarily suspended the advice service because of uncertainty over national guidance as to which policies applications should be assessed against, and how much weight each of these policies should have in the assessment process.

This follows the introduction of the new National Planning Policy Framework, alongside the development of the local area Core Strategy.

In following one set of guidance the Council was at odds with advice from the independent Planning Inspectorate.
 
A spokesman for the Council said, "The temporary suspension of the service was put in place to protect people who were intending to submit planning applications - we didn't want there to be any discrepancy in the advice given to customers, to ensure the system remained fair and consistent.

"Having now questioned the position, we're able to ensure that every application can continue to be assessed fairly and accurately and our face-to-face advice service at the customer contact centre in Selby will re-start again from next Tuesday."

The service is offered twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Click here for more about planning services in the Selby district.