Writing a Planning Statement for a Wealden application
A Planning Statement explains and justifies your proposal against the development plan. For schemes across Wealden — Crowborough, Uckfield, Hailsham and Heathfield and the surrounding area — that means engaging Wealden's own adopted policies on design, character and amenity, plus the NPPF. Buildwise auto-detects site constraints (High Weald National Landscape (AONB), Ashdown Forest SPA/SAC (7km nitrogen zone) and conservation areas) from your postcode and writes each section tailored to your site and project type.
Cited to Wealden's actual adopted plan
Buildwise references Wealden's live policies directly — for example design, amenity and character policies such as EN27 (Layout and Design of development), HG10 (Extensions to dwellings in development boundaries), DC19 (Extensions to dwellings (countryside)) — quoted from the source documents and verified, never invented. As Wealden updates its plan, Buildwise's corpus is updated with it.
- Wealden District Core Strategy Local Plan (2013)
- Wealden Local Plan 1998 (Saved Policies)
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 EN27 (Layout and Design of development). Generous separation to the host dwelling with no new facing windows satisfies the amenity requirements engaged by Policy HG10…"
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 Wealden'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.
Wealden's adopted Wealden District Core Strategy Local Plan (2013) and Wealden Local Plan 1998 (Saved Policies) policies relevant to your scheme — such as EN27 (Layout and Design of development), HG10 (Extensions to dwellings in development boundaries), DC19 (Extensions to dwellings (countryside)) — 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 Wealden 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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