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What is this guide for?

Use this guide to help your applicants engage early with parties that will be notified of their application, if your planning team believes there is value in doing so. This will not change the public notification process, but can assist applicants in resolving community concerns earlier in the process.

The guidance provides applicants with information about early advertising or early engagement and can be passed on to applicants.

Instructions for use

The guide can be customised to reflect your council’s recommendations for early public engagement.

Updating text on the guide

The guidance template outlines a standard process and can be edited to fit your council's needs.

The following areas of the template can be customised:

  1. add your letterhead or logo/standard headers and footers to identify your council
  2. amend text to reflect the recommended process that applicants follow in your council
  3. remove any implementation notes before publishing.

Where should the guidance document be available

The template should be stored internally and shared with applicants at the discretion of the planning department.

Not all applicants will benefit from early engagement and should be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Tips to get the most out of this guide

For this template to be most effective at your council, we recommend:

  • ensure the process is understood by planning staff, particularly understanding when early engagement is likely to be beneficial and when it will not be
  • circulate the tool with applicants where determined to be appropriate
  • store a copy of the tool where it can be easily located for planners to share when required.

Encouraging early engagement where appropriate can assist in avoiding conflicts between applicants and notified parties later in the process.

Page last updated: 01/07/24