Staffordshire Wildlife Trust responds to many planning applications every year and we often receive emails from groups asking how they too can respond to local planning applications that affect wildlife.

When someone applies for planning permission the application is publicised and a statutory consultation period of 21 days begins – an opportunity for anyone to share their thoughts and concerns on the application.

You can comment on the application online through the council’s website, email the planning department of a council or write a letter to them. Use the application number quoted on the letter from the council or on the notice which you may have seen on the street. If you don’t have this number, you can search by address on the planning section of your council’s website – this will also allow you to access documents for public viewing submitted along with the application.

Here are a few things you can do to make your comment more effective:

Comment early

The sooner you send your comments to the Local Council, the better.

Local Councils are more likely to be able to talk to the applicant and discuss concerns raised by local people if you submit your comment early in the process.

Consider starting a petition

If there are others who share your opinion then it’s a good idea to organise a petition, which can carry more weight in the decision-making process.

Think carefully about the content. You are more likely to have an impact if you keep your comments related to the ‘Material Planning Considerations’ of the application.

For example:

• Noise and disturbance relating to the use of the finished development, not its construction, such as external lighting impacting bats or disturbance to breeding birds that you know are nearby.
• Have ecological surveys been provided with possible impacts of the development and appropriate mitigation related to those impacts?
• The design, layout and appearance of a development: has green space for recreation within a housing development been provided, protection for veteran or significant trees or the use of bat or bird boxes to give wildlife a home been considered?
• Local planning policies often have a part referring to the ‘natural environment’ or ‘ecology’ and you should be able to find the policies related to the protection of wildlife in that particular authority.

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust doesn't have the capacity to share petitions and we cannot sign them as an organisation, especially if we are commenting on the plans through the formal process.

Contact your councillor

If you are particularly concerned about an application or think it might impact your area more widely, consider contacting your local councillor. They can comment on the application too and even ask that the application is taken to a planning committee for decision. Your council’s website should list who your councillors are.

When you provide comments, your details will be added to a list of people to notify of changes or outcomes to the application, and you will receive an update when the application is determined.

So next time you see a notice on a lamp post or get a letter in the post about a proposed development in your area, your response could make all the difference for the environment. Wildlife doesn’t have a voice, but you do.