Planning & Building

Office Opening Times

The Land Planning and Building Control Offices in Essex House, Jamestown opens Mondays to Fridays from 8.30am to 4pm and appointments can be made for Planning and Building Control staff by contacting the Secretary on telephone 22270.

Development Application

To undertake any development, development permission is required before any work is undertaken. This requires a submission of a development application form with the plans and drawing showing the location of the development site and details of proposed development. There is guidance available on the website on quality and details of plans and drawing that need to be provided with the application form.

Development applications can also be downloaded.

The development application is determined in accordance with the Land Planning and Development Control Ordinance and the Land Development Control Plan, unless material planning and environmental consideration indicate otherwise.

The decision on the development application is made by the Land Development Control Authority.

Weekly List of Development Application

All development applications received are available for the public to view in Essex House during office hours. The list of applications are advertised in the local papers and site notices are also placed at or close to the application site. The weekly list of all development applications is also available.

Members of the public have 14 days in which to make any written representation. However on major applications that require Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) the consultation period is 28 days.

Land Development Control Authority (LDCA) Agendas, Minutes and Reports

The Land Development Control Authority (LDCA) is responsible for making decisions on the development application. The LDCA Members are appointed by His Excellency Governor, but are independent of the Government.

The LDCA meets on the first Wednesday of each month to receive reports on the development applications and make decisions. The meetings are open to the public and those who have made representation to the application can make a request to address the meeting.

The Agenda, Minutes and Reports to be discussed are available from mid-afternoon on the Friday before the scheduled meeting.

Some development application decisions are delegated to the Chief Planning Officer to make on behalf of the LDCA. Scheme of delegation can be viewed here (Link). The decisions made by the Chief Planning Officer are also reported to LDCA.