Guildford Street improvements

If you are looking to change the shop front in Chertsey town centre, particularly along Guildford or Windsor Street, then it is likely that your property will be within the designated Conservation Area. This means there are additional controls on the type and style of shop fronts that can be erected, that may require planning permission. Also, there are many Statutorily Listed Buildings (SLBs) and Locally Listed Buildings (LLBs) in this area that have higher levels of protection, and proposals for SLBs require an additional application (called Listed Building consent) to ensure any proposed changes will not harm it. You can check using our online maps if your property is covered by any of these designations.

You may want to engage the services of a planning consultant to guide you through the planning application process, however this is not mandatory, and the Council cannot recommend any particular companies, however, the easiest way to submit your application is via the Planning Portal. We would however say that there may be some technical documents required (e.g., Heritage Assessments, or producing drawings to scale), which you may find easier to have done by specialists. 

When you submit your planning application to the Council, you will need to pay a fee. Depending on the level of works proposed, you will need to apply for what is called ‘full permission and display of advertisements’, ‘full permission and Listed Building consent’, ‘consent to display advertisements’ and ‘Listed Building consent’ (the latter is for proposals affecting SLBs).   The fees for each of these types of application varies. Please note that these fees have been set by Central Government and not by Runnymede Borough Council.

The Council has a document which will help you determine what information you will need to submit as part of a planning application. This is called the validation checklist and for shop front applications this will include:

• A completed application form
• The correct fee
• A location plan
• A Design and Access Statement (for SLBs)
• Existing and proposed elevation drawings
• A Heritage Statement (particularly if this is with the CA, or affects a SLB or LLB, but can also be applicable to those sites close to these areas / properties as impacts on the setting of heritage assets also needs to be assessed)
• A lighting assessment (if the application includes illuminated advertisements / signs / external lighting)

Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and you will need to check yourself to ensure that you have provided all the required information prior to submitting your application. 

All plans should be drawn to an identified standard metric scale and given a title and or drawing number. As the Council has moved to an electronic planning system, plans should be submitted in pdf format with a scale bar.

Once your application has been submitted to the Council, it will be checked against the validation checklist to ensure the Council has all the required information needed to make a decision upon it. If this is the case it will then be validated, registered and assigned to a case officer. A decision should be issued within eight weeks from the date of registration, unless you agree (in writing) a different timescale with the case officer. The case officer may also contact you during this period if they need any further information, clarifications or additional drawings to help them make a decision.