How it works
Three parties. One of them signs.
Planning is opaque mostly because nobody will tell you who is responsible for what. So this page starts there, and the rest follows from it.
- Chartered bodies whose members can sign
- 14Chartered bodies whose members can sign
- Citation categories checked before a draft leaves
- 11Citation categories checked before a draft leaves
- Document types the engine drafts
- 14Document types the engine drafts
- Documents submitted without your approval
- 0Documents submitted without your approval
Who does what
Wren drafts. A planner signs. The council decides.
Wren
Gathers the evidence on your site, works out which route your scheme needs, drafts every document that route requires against your council's own validation list and its adopted local plan, and checks every citation against a live source before a human ever sees it.
A chartered planner
Reads the draft in full, revises what needs revising, and signs it in their own name with their membership number on it. They are answerable to their institute for what they sign, which is the whole point of asking them.
The council
Validates the application against their published list, consults, assesses it against the adopted plan, and decides. We track it and chase it, and you see every stage as it happens.
The test that matters is the one nobody else will answer plainly: whose professional indemnity covers this. It is your assigned planner’s, and it is their name on the document.
The sequence
From a line on a map to a decision notice.
Nine steps. You are involved in three of them, and the rest happen where you can see them.
- 01
You draw your site
A red line on the map. That is the whole input, and it is free.
- 02
You answer a few questions and pay once
An itemised quote first. Nothing is drafted before you have seen the total.
- 03
Wren drafts the set
Every document your route needs, against your council's own requirements.
- 04
A chartered planner reviews and signs
In their own name, with their membership number, under their indemnity.
- 05
You approve the pack
Nothing goes to the council until you have read it and said yes.
- 06
We submit, you pay the council
We file it through the Planning Portal. The statutory fee is paid by you, directly to the Portal or the authority, and never passes through us.
- 07
We chase and track
Validation, consultation, assessment. Chased when it slips past the target date.
- 08
The decision notice
In your file the day it lands, with what it means in plain words.
Read properly
The four parts worth reading properly.
Each of these answers a question people ask us before they commit, and each of them is a page rather than a paragraph because the honest answer is longer than a paragraph.
Timescales
What each stage actually takes.
| Stage | Who | Typical |
|---|---|---|
| Appraisal and quote | Wren | Same day |
| Drafting the set | Wren | 3 to 5 days |
| Chartered review and signature | Your assigned planner | 2 to 4 days |
| Your approval | You | As long as you need |
| Validation by the council | The council | 1 to 3 weeks |
| Consultation | The council | 3 weeks, statutory |
| Assessment and decision | The council | 8 weeks from validation |
Councils are under a statutory 8 week target for a householder application and 13 weeks for a major. Neither is a guarantee, which is why chasing is part of the service rather than an extra.
Start with the part that costs nothing.
Draw your site. You will see the constraints, the route, the documents and the price before you decide anything at all.