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Greater Cambridge Shared Planning

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Advice for small businesses

If you are a small business looking for planning advice please read our guide below. 

If you are a developer looking to build new homes, converting your property into flats, building new employment spaces, or changing use, our pre-application developer service can help you.Find out if planning permission is needed.  

Pre-application advice helps you find out if a development is likely to be acceptable. It will highlight any main issues before you put in a formal application. 

Our pre-application advice service has benefits including: 

  • saving time and money 
  • fewer failed planning applications 
  • making sure you provide the right information to support your final application 

For more information visit the Planning Portal. 

This indicates that planning permission is not typically required.

Note that certain criteria will often need to be met for the work to be considered a permitted development. If your planned work does not meet these criteria, then it does not fall under permitted development and planning permission will be required.

You are strongly advised to read the technical guidance document produced by the Government to help understand how permitted development rules might apply to your circumstances.

Under common law a highway is defined as 'a way over which there exists a public right of passage'. A highway can be a road or a footpath. It does not have to be a drivable route.

There are 3 types of highway:

  • a road or footpath maintainable at the public expense – referred to as 'adopted'
  • a road or footpath maintainable at private expense – referred to as 'unadopted'
  • a private street/footway or footpath

The first 2 are the same with the difference being as to who maintains it.

A private road is considered a highway unless it is truly a private piece of land owned by one or more parties. More often these ‘private’ roads are simply unadopted roads.

You should apply for full planning permission to install, change, or replace a CCTV camera if:

  • its dimensions will be greater than 75cm x 25cm x 25cm (including its housing)
  • it will be positioned less than 2.5m from the ground
  • it will protrude more than 1m from the wall
  • it will be in contact with the property’s surface at a place more than 1m from any other point of contact
  • it will be less than 10m from another camera on the property
  • more than four cameras will be attached to the same side of the property in total
  • more than 16 cameras will be attached to the whole property

Before you buy or rent an antenna, check whether you need planning permission, listed building consent, or permission from the landlord or owner. You are responsible for placing antennas in the appropriate position.

The planning permission and permitted development regimes for antenna are shown below, you can also view our good practice guidance on installing an antenna (which contains supplementary advice on installation).

Under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended), you have a general permission to install an antennas up to a specific size on property without the need for planning permission. This general permission depends on your house type and area.

The regime splits buildings up into 4 categories detailed on the Planning Portal:

    1. Houses and buildings up to 15 metres high
    2. Houses and buildings up to 15m high in designated areas
    3. Buildings 15 metres high or more
    4. Buildings 15 metres high or more in designated areas

To confirm the use class of building and or land, the following links and information can provide the relevant information.