Explanatory note

This Order consolidates with amendments the procedural provisions of the Town and Country Planning General Development Order 1988 and subsequent amending instruments. A separate Order, the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 (S.I. 1995/418), consolidates with amendments the remaining provisions which deal with permitted development.

The Order specifies the procedures connected with planning applications, appeals to the Secretary of State and related matters so far as these are not laid down in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Town and Country Planning (Applications) Regulations 1988 (S.I. 1988/1812). It also deals with the maintenance of registers of planning applications, applications for certificates of lawful use or development, and other related matters.

The main change made by the Order is the inclusion of a requirement for a local planning authority, before granting planning permission, to consult the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England in relation to development likely to affect any registered Grade I or Grade II* garden or park of special historic interest (paragraph (o) of the Table in article 10).