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The planning system allows people to improve and
develop their homes and businesses whilst ensuring
that alterations are made with consideration to the
impact upon neighbours and the visual appeal of
the local area. This delicate balancing act is
proscribed by various pieces of planning legislation,
national guidance from central government and
regional policies.
The development management team, known as
Development Control, implements the legislation set
by central government and determines applications
according to national, regional and local policy.
You can speak to a Duty Planning Officer, in person,
without an appointment at Merton Link on the ground
floor of Merton Civic Centre between the hours of 9am
and 11am Monday to Friday; and on the telephone
between the hours of 1pm and 4pm.
Please note that the Duty Officer will only be able to
give basic advice, such as how to make an application
or where you can find our planning policies, and
cannot give free advice on the acceptability of your
proposal nor give an informal opinion about the likely
success of an application.
Planning: Development Control
Subject to the payment of a fee, we provide formalised
pre-application planning advice for all schemes,
including householder development, any development
involving changes of use or the provision of new
floorspace, and any application requiring a certificate
of lawful development. Please visit the website for
further information regarding fees.
Once an application has been made a case officer
is assigned to deal with the application until the point
of making a decision. The case officer will do a site
visit, check plans, and make a recommendation
based on national and local policy. The final decision
as to whether or not to grant planning permission,
advertisement consent or issue a certificate will then
be taken.
The Development Control section also has a special
enforcement team that investigates development that
has occurred without permission and determines
whether or not such alterations should be reversed.
In addition to managing planning applications,
Development Control also manages applications for
works to privately owned trees.
Contact Development Control:
020 8545 3777 - phone lines are open
Monday to Friday, 1pm to 4pm