Writing a Planning Statement for a Hastings application
A Planning Statement explains and justifies your proposal against the development plan. For schemes across Hastings — Hastings, St Leonards-on-Sea, Ore and Hollington and the surrounding area — that means engaging Hastings's own adopted policies on design, character and amenity, plus the NPPF. Buildwise auto-detects site constraints (conservation areas (Old Town, Burton's St Leonards), High Weald National Landscape (adjacent) and coastal / flood risk) from your postcode and writes each section tailored to your site and project type.
Cited to Hastings's actual adopted plan
Buildwise references Hastings's live policies directly — for example design, amenity and character policies such as DM1 (Design Principles), DM3 (General Amenity), SC2 (Design and Access Statements) — quoted from the source documents and verified, never invented. As Hastings updates its plan, Buildwise's corpus is updated with it.
- Hastings Planning Strategy (2014)
- Hastings Development Management Plan (2015)
How it works
Address + postcode; constraints detected automatically.
Usually under 10 minutes.
Download as PDF, edit online, or send to your client under your practice logo.
Example (excerpt)
"The single-storey design and restrained ridge height directly address scale and massing, ensuring compliance with Policy DM1 (Design Principles). Generous separation to the host dwelling with no new facing windows satisfies the amenity requirements engaged by Policy DM3…"
Frequently asked questions
Usually not. Across the councils Buildwise covers, a planning statement is a validation requirement only for major applications — several councils do not list it at all, and one asks for it wherever the context and justification need demonstrating. For a householder or small-residential scheme it is optional. It is still the document that argues your scheme against Hastings's adopted policies, which is where most refusals are decided — and where the statutory design and access content applies (major development, or a dwelling or 100m² of new floorspace inside a conservation area or World Heritage Site) Buildwise includes that section too.
Hastings's adopted Hastings Planning Strategy (2014) and Hastings Development Management Plan (2015) policies relevant to your scheme — such as DM1 (Design Principles), DM3 (General Amenity), SC2 (Design and Access Statements) — plus the NPPF.
Minutes, versus most of a working day by hand.
The permitted development check is free, for everyone, and signing up costs nothing. Planning statements are £95 each with no subscription; monthly plans start at £249.
Start your Hastings Planning Statement.
The Permitted Development check is free — no card needed. Planning documents are £95 each, with your practice’s logo on every one.
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