Pre-application advice for roads and transport

1 Overview

Local planning authorities consult West Sussex County Council for advice on any road and transport matters that affect proposals submitted for planning permission. They then take our recommendations into account when making a decision on a planning application.

The county council is not the determining authority. The highways pre‑application service gives advice only. This advice is not a formal decision. The service helps applicants prepare the highway‑related parts of their scheme before they submit it to the Local Planning Authority. This aims to make the planning process easier and reduce the time needed to determine highway matters.

We process all pre‑application submissions in the same way as live planning applications. We use the statutory 21‑day consultation response time for consultees.

The service guides the design of proposals and advises on what may or may not be acceptable. The county council does not design proposals on behalf of applicants. That responsibility sits with the transport consultant or designers working for the client. Designing the proposal is not part of the highways pre‑application advice service.

We can provide advice on road and transport issues associated with any proposed development before you submit a planning application. The benefits of seeking advice include:

• reducing the time and cost involved in working up proposals
• reducing the subsequent cost of unsuccessful applications
• the provision of information on what you need to provide with your application
• helping to speed up the decision-making process once an application has been submitted

If you submit an application without seeking the county council's advice first or have not used the advice given, the Highway Authority will base their response to the local planning authority on the information submitted with the application on the planning portal.

At full planning stage, there will unlikely be time to discuss at length and revise a proposal/design before the local planning authority needs to make a decision on the application.

Please note: For pre-application advice from County Planning, see county planning pre-application advice or for Flood Risk Management see Flood Risk Management: Pre-application advice.

2 Advice levels

Our advice can include:

• relevant policies and guidance
• the required level of detail and supporting information necessary to provide a valid assessment of highways and transport matters
• whether a contribution towards highways and transport improvements is likely to be required
• transport assessment scoping to determine the content, preparation and presentation of a transport assessment likely to satisfy our requirements
• comments we have made about previous applications at the proposed site
• the suitability of access arrangements
• a review of a Stage 1 Road Safety Audit (RSA) and a GG 119 complaint RSA Response Report
• advise applicants about who else they need to consult - for example, if a proposal includes a change to a speed limit or traffic‑calming measures, these aspects have their own consultation processes outside the planning system and applicants must follow these processes and secure agreement before including them in their planning submission

Details about the levels of advice

Level 1 - Free written advice (scoping only)

We will provide a written response free of charge relating to your scoping out of an application, detailing which documents and information the county council need to be submitted to support an application at the planning stage. 

This response sent within the statutory 21 day response window may: 

• state that we are satisfied with the scoping proposal, based on the information provided or offer advice on what else will be required to enable a full review of the proposal at planning stage
• offer advice on other parties that will require being consulted
• refer you to national and local policies and guidance that should be considered

The response will not include a:

• review of the proposal or development itself
• meeting

Level 2 - Single meeting with written advice

This service:

• is suitable for small to large developments where the proposal require discussion to resolve matters - the county council can guide on the design or what could be or is not accepted, but cannot ‘design’ the proposal on the applicants behalf, this is down to the transport consultant and designers working for the client (it is not part of the highways pre application service)
• includes a single meeting online via Teams - we will aim to contact you within 5 working days of receiving payment or an invoice being issued to arrange the meeting (a site or face-to-face meeting at County Hall will only be carried out if our officers feel it is necessary)
• includes written confirmation of advice after the meeting
• includes advice that will reflect the level of detail that has been provided to the county council
• incurs a cost that must be paid upfront

If you require further correspondence, review of further designs or meetings with the county council, further charges will apply. This will be down to the officers and team managers discretion, dependant on the time it is likely to take to review further details and information or answer any further questions relating to the submission. 

3 Cost

Note: Pre-application fees will increase in line with inflation from 1 April each year.

After receiving your request for pre-application advice, we will send you an email with a link to pay online if we are providing one of our chargeable services. Payment will be required before meetings can be booked with our officers. If you require an invoice, meetings can be booked once the invoice has been issued. 

Hotels and care and nursing homes should be submitted using the commercial area amount and not by the amount of rooms. 

Pre-application fees for full and outline applications 

Pre-application fees for reserved matters and discharge of planning condition applications

If your application does not fit any of the descriptions above, contact us and we will advise you on the fee. 

4 Additional information

Be aware that:

• requesting pre-application advice from us is not mandatory but we will no longer enter into discussion over the scope or content of any specialist highways and transport proposals outside this service
• any advice given does not constitute a formal decision - this is an advice service only, to help applicants prepare the highway related elements of a scheme ready for submission to the Local Planning Authority, to ease the planning process and decrease the time for determination (for highway related matters)
• little to no weight will be given to the content of our pre-application advice for schemes where the surrounding area/context or highway network has changed since the advice was given - this may also be the case where previous pre application advice and standards are out of date
• any views or opinions are given in good faith and on the best of ability, without prejudice to the formal consideration of any planning application, which will be subject to public consultation and ultimately decided by the local planning authority
• any advice given in relation to the planning history of the site, planning constraints or statutory designations does not constitute a formal response under the provisions of the Local Land Charges Act 1975
• if a development is close to the Strategic Road Network (SRN), which is operated and maintained by National Highways, then the applicant will also need to consult them separately for pre application advice to the Local Highway Authority
• from 1 June 2023 Active Travel England (ATE) are now a statutory consultee on planning applications with regards to active travel, they are consulted on applications by the district and borough councils of 150+ dwellings, 7,500sqm+ of commercial floorspace or sites of 5 hectares or more

Supporting information

• Transport assessments and statements - Guidance from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
• Vision Led Approach to Transport Planning - the National Planning Policy Framework now requires that all development that generates significant amount of movement should be supported by a vision-led Transport Statement or Assessment. Guidance on this approach is available from the TRICS Guidance Note.
• Trip Rate Information Computer System (TRICS) - The national standard system of trip generation and analysis used as a part of the transport assessment process.
• Guidance on parking at new developments (PDF, 4.5MB) - please note Arun District Council, Crawley Borough Council and South Downs National Park Authority all have their own parking standards; refer to their individual guidance.
• Car parking demand calculator (Excel, 1.8MB) applies to parking in residential developments where requirements are calculated on a site-specific basis using the demand calculator. To accompany this calculator view the maps in the bullet below. If you are not able to use the calculators for accessibility reasons, contact us.
• Maps showing the wards in each district/borough in West Sussex (PDF, 3.5MB)
• Road Safety Audit Policy (PDF, 2.7MB) - The design manual for roads and bridges has been updated and HD 19/15 has been replaced with GG 119 road safety audit. As from 1 April 2019, we require road safety audits to comply with the requirements of GG 119 and not HD 19/15.
• Manual for streets and Manual for streets 2 - Guidance for those involved in the planning, design, provision and approval of new streets and modifications to existing ones.
• Design manual for roads and bridges
• Active Travel England (ATE) - Active Travel England are now statutory consultees in the planning process. There is various guidance on their website for walking, wheeling and cycling, including the planning application assessment toolkit.
• LTN 1/20 Cycle Infrastructure Design
• LTN 1/24 Bus user priority
• Inclusive Mobility - a best practice guide on access to pedestrian and transport infrastructure.
• National Highways (NH) are the highway authority for the Strategic Road Network (SRN) and in West Sussex this forms the sections of the A27, A23 and M23 that are within the County. National Highways can be approached for pre-application advice via their website.
• Road agreements - Guidance (technical notes and other documents about Section 278, Section 38 and minor works agreements) and application forms.
• Highway boundary information - Submit a request to find the boundary of a property or land with the highway.
• Parking standards and transport contributions methodology supplementary planning guidance (PDF, 292KB) sets out the contributions methodology to be applied to commercial and residential development in Mid Sussex and Adur, where Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charges have not been introduced.

5 Request advice

Please note: Any meetings for pre-application advice will include a single meeting online via Microsoft Teams. A site or face-to-face meeting at County Hall will only be carried out if our officers feel it is necessary.

The following documentation must be included with your request or it will be returned:

• site location plan (scale 1:1,250) with the site boundary shown
• description of proposed works and transport scoping note

For level 2 applications, providing more information allows the county council to give a much more comprehensive response.

For example, the documents listed below are required for a full planning application; submitting these at the pre-application stage will provide a much more solid basis for a future planning application.

• schedule of existing uses, including planning history with reference numbers
• description, including site layout plans of the proposed development
• summary of reasons supporting site access/highway works proposals, including plan (scale 1:200 or similar) with achievable visibility splays indicated and forward and inter visibility splays if required
• design audit of proposed highway works, including identified departures from standards (if applicable)
• final stage 1 Road Safety Audit of proposed highway works and RSA Audit Response Report (in line with GG119), including amended plans as necessary (if applicable)
• location plan of key services indicating locations of education, employment, food retail, non-food retail and healthcare facilities
• reference to supporting national, regional and local planning documents and policies
• parking strategy, including provision of parking for all modes of transport, using the county council guidance on parking at new developments (for developments in Arun, Crawley and the South Downs National Park, refer to their own parking guidance documents)
• relevant data collected to date
• proposed trip rates supported with Trip Rate Information Computer System (TRICS) outputs and site selection methodology
• tracking analysis, detailing refuse, fire tender and general car tracking of the parking, turning and road space areas to indicate suitability

In terms of our chargeable services, we now require payment to be made before a meeting can be booked in with one of our officers. If paying by invoice, then this can be done once an invoice has been issued.

Extra information submitted after an initial submission, but before a meeting, will have to be done so in a reasonable time to allow officers time to review this before a meeting. Extra information submitted in the 2 working days prior to any meeting may result in the meeting being cancelled and re-arranged to allow our officers time to review the information and prepare.

6 What happens next

After submitting your request for advice, you will be contacted for payment of the non-refundable fee for our chargeable services. For free written advice, you will receive an email confirmation that the request has been booked in.

No meetings can be booked until payment has been received or an invoice issued.

7 Contact our team

If you have a query before you submit your application, please send us an email.

You cannot apply for pre-application advice by email - you need to use the online form on the request advice page.

Ensure you read all sections on this page as the information, service levels and costs have recently been updated.