Comment on or object to a planning application

National Planning Improvement – customer and stakeholder survey

Have you interacted with our planning authority in the last year? We’d love to hear about your experience.

The National Planning Improvement team are looking for stakeholders and customers of planning authorities to fill out this quick survey.  This is your opportunity to say what is working and where improvements can be made.  The survey is open until Sunday 8 December.

Any individual, group or organisation can make comments of objection or support for a planning application while it is open for consultation.

How to comment on a planning application

Online

To comment online you must register on the public access portal. It only takes a couple of minutes and will also allow you to track applications and save searches.

Once registered, please follow the steps below:

1. Log in to your account Select 'Search>Planning>Simple search' and find the application you wish to comment on
2. On the right side of the page select 'Make a public comment'
3. Enter your comments
4. Select 'Submit'

By post

To comment by post, please write to the following address and include the following:

• date
• name and address of the sender
• reference number of the application
• address of the site
• your comments

Planning and Regulatory Services
Council Headquarters
Newtown St. Boswells
Melrose
TD6 0SA

Any comments you submit, either online or by post, will be published on the Planning Portal, along with your name and address, and will be available for inspection and copying by any interested party.

If you need any assistance or further information please contact us online or by phone.

Before commenting

It is advisable to find out as much information as possible about the proposals beforehand. All planning application files are available online on our Public Access portal. The planning officer dealing with the application may discuss the case with any person.

When submitting comments, we would encourage you to make it clear whether you wish to object or support the application, or whether you just wish to make a comment regarding the proposals. If, after having inspected the plans, you have any concerns about the proposals, you should submit your comments which should be restricted to 'material planning considerations', by one of the methods described.

Response

Your comment will be acknowledged and will be considered during the processing of the application. If the application is to be determined at Committee level, your comments, or a summary of its terms, may be made available to Committee Members. You will also be notified of the decision on the application.

If you communicate with us by email then our response will also be via email. 

Material planning considerations

Material planning considerations can include issues such as:

• the appearance of the proposal in terms of design
• siting and materials
• traffic parking or access problems
• residential amenity (noise, overshadowing)
• drainage and infrastructure
• impact on the natural or built environment

Material planning considerations do not include:

• private legal or ownership matters
• the impact of a proposal on views from a property
• the impact on the value of the property