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Introduction
This Customer Charter explains the services that the Bassetlaw District Council Development Management team provides and sets out the standards that customers can expect to receive in accessing these services. It provides further details as to where more detailed information can be found on how these services operate.
The DM service operates through four different teams: two Development Management, one technical support team, and Planning Enforcement. The teams provide three main types of service working on issues related to the development of land and the application of town planning legislation. These are:
- Providing advice on the requirement and also the likelihood of gaining planning permission and other related consents for proposals.
- Dealing with statutory applications for planning permission and other related consents.
- Ensuring compliance with planning legalisation and the taking of enforcement action where required.
Our Service Values
Through our service transformation, we have committed to provide services which are:
- Responsive – All communication will be clear and delivered in a timely manner.
- Effective – Provide high-quality outcomes that align with Bassetlaw’s strategic goals.
- Transparent – All relevant planning information, decisions, and policies will be published.
- Fair – All our actions will be delivered with integrity, fairness, and respect.
- Inclusive – Our services and information will be designed to be straightforward, user-friendly, and accessible to everyone.
- Accessible – Making the planning process as clear and easy to access as possible.
Our Service Standards
To deliver our service values, we will endeavour to:
- Deal with matters quickly, transparently and without unnecessary delays.
- Deal with matters in a straightforward and jargon free manner, in particular when dealing with members of the public who may not be familiar with the planning system.
- Deal with people in a personable and openly approachable manner.
- Interpret regulations in a pragmatic and solution-driven manner, seeking to apply a positive attitude to sustainable development.
- Take pride in our performance achievements, putting quality of performance at the heart of service delivery.
- Be open to challenge, including being able to openly and freely explain why and how we have made decisions.
In practical terms, this means that we will aim to:
- Ensure that correspondences are responded to within 10 working days, either providing a substantive response or a setting out a timeframe for a more detailed response if required.
- Provide clear and detailed pre-application advice where sought.
- Register new applications within 3 workings days of receipt.
- Validate applications within 5 working days of registration.
- Consult all relevant stakeholders in line with national guidance.
- Publish all relevant details and updates on applications on the Council’s self-service Planning Public Access.
- Publish all local validation requirements, planning policies and supplementary guidance on the Council’s website.
- Determine 90% of applications within the statutory timeframes or with Extensions of Time where possible.
- Notify interested parties when a planning appeal is lodged in line with Planning Inspectorate guidance.
- Make all relevant information relating to the service easily accessible on the Council’s website as the first port of call before requiring Officer intervention.
- Regularly review our procedures to ensure a consistent manner of working is adopted throughout the service and provide a high level of customer service.
To manage customer expectations, we will not:
- Respond individually to comments, objections or questions from third parties. However, the Case Officer will take these into account when assessing the application.
- Respond to multiple chaser emails where an answer/advice has previously been given.
- Update more than one party on the progress of an application. The main point of contact will usually be the registered planning agent or applicant (if there is no agent).
- Accept unsolicited amendments to planning applications (see Amendments to Planning Applications Protocol).
- Enter into discussions with applicants or stakeholders that fall outside the scope of our published guidance.
- Provide detailed information about ongoing planning enforcement cases or actions.
In return we expect all our customers to:
- Respect the legal and procedural constraints of our role.
- Submit accurate and complete applications.
- Make accurate and well-informed representations and planning applications.
- Let us know when something has gone wrong or where we could make improvements.
- Let us know what we are doing well.
- Help us use our time effectively by only contacting us with queries once the advice available on our website has been considered and used to narrow down any specific points in question.
- Allow time for us to respond in line with our timescales.
Complaints and Feedback
We are always trying to improve our service delivery and the customer experience. Complaints and feedback help us to improve the way we do things and make the planning process more efficient, easy to engage with, and provide consistent high-quality decision-making.
If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received, we have a planning service complaints procedure where you can let us know.
Planning Service Complaints | Bassetlaw District Council
Feedback can also be provided via the Customer Satisfaction Survey which you will receive on the determination of your planning application.
Last Updated on Tuesday, September 1, 2026