Ideally any comments on applications should be made using the online comment facility on the planning website

Submitted comments must contain the name and address of sender but personal details such as signature, telephone number and so on, are not essential and therefore will be redacted. The Council reserves the right to reject any comments which in its opinion contains comments that are deemed to be potentially libellous, defamatory, threatening, abusive or contravenes the provisions of the Equality Act 2010.

If you do wish to comment by letter your comments should be sent to:

Strategy and Planning
Town Hall
Bexhill on Sea
TN39 3JX

When making your comments you should specify your reasons.   Online comments and letters are not acknowledged but will be added to the application’s file which can be viewed on the planning website.

Comments will only be accepted for planning (and other related) applications that are specifically the subject of statutory publicity.

(Matters that are NOT subject to publicity include: minor amendments to existing permissions; applications to discharge conditions; notifications from Statutory Undertakers; Householder Prior Notification applications; applications for works to trees in Conservation Areas, applications for the display of advertisements and determinations of lawfulness relating to a proposed use or development.)

Guidance for submitting comments

The purpose of a planning application consultation is to allow local residents and third parties to express their views on a planning application. Whilst the majority of applications are not controversial and generate little or no public interest, some schemes do attract a significant number of letters of objection or support, which makes individual dialogue with Rother officers impractical.

Therefore please note officers cannot enter into a dialogue with you over the merits or otherwise of any planning application, but please be reassured (providing your comments contain you full name and address) your views WILL always be taken into consideration when determining the planning application. However, if you would like to contact your ward member about an application you can find their contact details on our website.

Any representations received, petitions or individual representations will become public documents and will also be published on the internet.  Signatures, email addresses and telephone numbers will be redacted but requests for confidentiality cannot be accepted.

It should also be noted that while the planning website is updated regularly, correspondence can take several days to appear as all correspondence needs to be checked prior to being posted.

Your responsibilities:

  • Only provide personal information if you are happy for it to be placed in the public domain, including publication on the internet.
  • Do not include personal information about another person (including family members) unless the individual concerned has consented and you can provide evidence of this consent.
  • Tell us as soon as possible if any of the personal information you have provided should change.

The Council reserves the right to reject any representation which in its opinion contains comments that are deemed to be potentially libellous, defamatory, threatening, abusive or likely to incite racial hatred.

Planning Matters taken into account

Any objection, comment or support in relation to an application should only raise material planning matters relevant to the application. The Council cannot deal with non-planning issues. For guidance in relation to material planning considerations and matters that are not planning matters please see our making comments on planning applications page.

Representations and the points raised will be considered by the planning officer in their assessment of the application. However, the Council cannot enter into correspondence with objectors or supports of an application.

Independent advice

Planning Aid provides independent planning advice, you can call them on 0870 850 9806.

They give some advice to all callers and if you meet their eligibility criteria you may be given extra help by one of their professional planning staff or volunteers.

Deadlines

There may be several different dates provided in different documents and online for the last date by which comments must be submitted. This is because the documents may be produced or publicised on different days. In most cases the period for publicity is 21 days for comments to be submitted, and normally 14 days for amendments from the latest date shown in the publicity.

The earlier you can submit comments the better as it gives us more time to take them into account when we are dealing with the application.

If an application is a matter being reported to the Planning Committee, the Council’s procedures currently allow individual representations to be accepted up until 9am on the Monday before the meeting, at the latest.

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