Who provides the service?

Development Control is administered in the District by the Council's Planning Unit which is managed by the Planning Manager.  Planning applications and enquiries are dealt with by area teams of officers responsible for the Barnstaple, Instow & Fremington, Ilfracombe & Northern Rural and South Molton Areas of the District. The area teams are based in the Planning Unit on the 4th floor of Barnstaple's Civic Centre, although Planning Surgeries are held at the Ilfracombe Centre and Amory Centre, South Molton (Contact Us).

Audit Commission Inspection Report 2006

Planning Services recently underwent an Audit Commission Service Inspection, please read the Inspection Report (pdf 141kb) by the Audit Commission here.


Planning Code of Conduct

How to Comment or Provide Feedback on the Service

Our aim as a Planning and Development Service is always to provide an excellent standard of customer service. However, in recognition that the service should strive to continually improve we would welcome suggestions as to how it may be further developed to meet the requirements of its customer.

We would therefore encourage any of our customers with feedback of whatever nature to get in contact with us at the earliest opportunity and the links from this page detail how to go about it. A link to our Customer Feedback Form is provided to assist you but you are of course able to submit any comments by letter to Mike Kelly, Planning Manager, Civic Centre, North Walk, Barnstaple, EX31 1EA; by fax 01271 388293 or by e-mail mike_kelly@northdevon.gov.uk.

Our service standards are detailed in the Council’s Planning Charter and Enforcement Charter. In addition, the service has published a number of Best Practice Notes which are intended to provide advice on specific planning issues to customers of the service, including prospective applicants, professional agents and parish and town councillors. All these documents are under review as part of the Service’s improvement programme.

This page also links to general guidance on the operation of the planning system provided by the Council and by the Government’s Planning Portal whilst the progress of individual planning applications submitted to the Council can be followed using the Council’s Planning Application Tracker.

The up to date North Devon Local Plan and related planning documents are also available on this website which is kept up to date. Comments on these documents may also be submitted to this office on-line.

A Planning Handbook has also been published by the service and is available free of charge (01271 388288). The publication describes the purpose and operation of the Council’s Planning Service that seeks to ensure that new development is in line with planning policies detailed in the development plan in order to achieve sustainable development by successfully integrating all the social, economic and environmental issues that arise with new schemes.