Planning By Design Reviews 

Updated review as the initial review was made to get a £100 discount on my bill.
PLEASE BE AWARE, everything is a template. They have 100s of cases they are concurrently doing, no doubt, which leads to very poor applications with no arguments as to why the listed building or planning consent should be given.
They are also not the cheapest. I will be notifying Trustpilot soon to explain what they are doing (see email extract below with URL's removed qas it is not allowed
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As a thank you for your time and feedback we would be delighted to give you a £100 discount per review so if you share your review on all 3 that is £300 in total off your invoice."

Planning by design helped us with a pre application and final application for a change of use recently. We are very grateful for the results and assistance throughout the process, they ensured evidence was correct and enough for a positive outcome and we're available when we had any questions.

We have liked the practical approach and competitive prices that planning by design offered.
We would have put a 5 stars review if the quality of the service was exactly as described when we asked the quote.
The design brief that they require to do the drawings are time consuming but it with spending the right amount of time to avoid the back and forth with the architect. However despite a precise design brief made, the architect did made changes and error to our drawings with no specific reason. It took a few email and phone call to rectify and make sure the drawings where respecting dimensions of the original floor plan and the proposed floor plan and design.
After getting the final drawings we were asked by the company to check if we where happy with the drawings before they submit the planning application. Considering that the drawings included all the main things we asked for and believing that they were made by professionals we validated the drawings.
The application got sent back immediately by the Council mentioning that the application was not valid because of 5 issues in regards to the corelation in between the drawings. Also site photos that was submitted was not enough.
We were told before agreeing to do the drawings with planning by design that they were experts with those type of applications. So when agreeing with the drawings we where considering that the points mentioned above would have been checked before to be submitted but they were not.
We needed to pay a fee in order to resubmit the application and when contesting that we were not responsible to pay for it, they declined any responsibility base on the fact that we validated the drawings.
Future client be careful with this point as they will not accept any responsibility!
Apart from this responsibility issue, they have a good communication and will assist you throughout the process.
We did get our application approved in the end, so it s very positive.

I went ahead with Planning by Design to secure planning permission for a new dwelling, and they successfully obtained approval. They were professional and knowledgeable. Overall, I’m satisfied with the outcome and would recommend their services.

Excellent service, thoroughly professional from start to finish. Advice was well considered and without any pressure, wouldn't hesitate to recommend Planning by Design

I found planning by design after I had had a poor experience with a local architect and they were great, they were able to use the drawings we had and they were very quick to reply and respond with information and costings, Kim was very very helpful thanks and I would definitely recommend and would use again for another project.
Thanks again Adam

Planning by design took all of the hassle and unknowns out of the planning process. They responded quickly at each stage and been so, so helpful throughout, taking time to answer all the questions we had. Their rates are competitive and I would highly recommend them to everyone.

Not enough hours in the day to express the stress lies and unprofessionalism this company caused me and my wife, and I’ve got to name him (Micheal brean) caused lots of stress to us which wasn’t needed ) we are very easy going people honest and fair .

We’ve been treated like dogs by this company.
Taken money from us at certain stages and not done any of the work they said they would for the monies they took , ( fraudulent is what I call it ) reached out to grant the md many many times cried out for help actually from him , all he did was spit us out and took our money .

Micheal sent us other clients cases and files on many occasions ( he said by accident) once is enough but doing this 2-3 times doesn’t give me confidence in keeping our files protected data protection etc .

This is the best part , after our refused planning application they advised us to pay for an appeal £816 fine no problem , paid them in full, ( even thow an appeal is free to submit ) 6 months down the line , nothing no correspondence , wrote to the planning inspectorate in Bristol , they wrote back to me explaining that planning by design were sent many letters asking for information and they didn’t reply back so that meant times had lapsed and the appeal couldn’t go ahead ,
I was absolutely fuming , again grant the md said no not our fault ( so what the planning inspector wrote a letter with a pack of lies init ??? I don’t think so grant .

All in all a very horrendous stress-full 2 years and costly , I urge anyone about to use These people to call me 07530330071 I’ll send you email proof and let you see documents or what this company did to me and my wife. Over a 2 year period and the appeals and enforcements charges they charged me and did no work atall ( well Probally about 10 emails all in all ) but that doesn’t equate to over £2000 charged to us , complete thieves:

You will be robbed if you use them. They don’t have an address and that’s so no one can create a money claim / court case against them. Then don’t have an office you can write to either , and oh they all work remotely , basically they don’t have any offices . Planning by design I believe is just a made up name , with an office of thin air. Website is very deceiving looks lovely and professional Believe me it’s far from it.

Grant will talk the talk at the start fill your head with confidence, but he will rob you blind. And give you no results.

I’m expecting his or abis reply to be the same as all the other reply’s to his reviews ( never his fault ever ) Hold your hands up for once do the right thing and admit you got it wrong .

I’ll give them a 5 star review for my second application that did get passed but that was only because of me chasing the council planning by design did no chasing up nothing , I did all the work Micheal might aswell be stacking shelves in tescos seriously he’s a waste of fresh air. He’s cause me more stress and anger than I’ve ever had in my whole life .

Don't waste your time with these guys. AJ is a salesman and will hound you on the phone until you agree to do business with them. Due to this, I reluctantly paid for their pre-planning advice. Despite saying that the phone call would be a comprehensive overview of the merits on my case, the call was booked hastily for the next day and the person I spoke to didn't even read the brief. They were unaware of the full scope of what I was looking to do and gave very generic insights which weren't particularly helpful. In contrast, I received more useful information when making an enquiry with a different planning company and that advice wasn't chargeable. When I conveyed my disappointment and provided some feedback, AJ became VERY defensive and started quoting the awards they had won and how I'd have to pay significantly more if I got pre planning advice from the council. It came across very unprofessional and a little concerning. For this reason, I would not recommend

Pbd provided a clear cut and professional service. The planning consultant was clear and realistic about what the best approach would be for obtaining planning permission. The method of payment was flexible and accommodating. Very pleased with the service provided so far.

It's taken again but almost there now

Be careful before using this company. They will NEVER visit your site. Drawings are made from OS resources and not very accurate (In my case, a subsequent independent tree survey demonstrated that trees on their drawings were actually in the middle of a road! I was initially asked to pay for the amendment to their mistake). I did eventually get permission for my build after 6 months, but now need to consult with another architect to get to the next stage. The MD has weird ideas about how to run a business, and converse with customers too.

Planning by design gave a very detailed appraisal of our needs and the feasibility of a successful planning approval. Mislav and his team were very thorough, and we have successfully gained planning permission for 4 bed HMO in an article 4 area. (Gaining planning approval for HMO in an article 4 area can be really difficult if not impossible at times, but Planning by design managed to secure this for us, very pleased indeed. Will definitely use again. Thanks again Mislav and team.

I am not very computer literate so when we were considering converting our garage into a space for my son's music, games and an extra bedroom for visitors, we went on line and found Planning By Design. They were always courteous and helped and they sent the relevant paperwork to our local council who have now given us the necessary planning permission. Excellent company and I would definitely recommend them

I was really glad to have picked Planning by Design when I was recently considering whether to extend the front of my house to create a porch and move my front door forward. I needed to make a decision quickly and at no great expense and their team were quick and very professional from receiving my request for a quote on a Tuesday, calling me and providing me with a quote on Wednesday, and booking me in for a planning appraisal for only the following day. Thank you to Cara for supporting me throughout the process!

For what felt like a modest fee, I was able to share my plans with a few bullet points and some demonstrative photos and the appraiser was able to give me some brief feedback on whether or not I would need planning permission, and the likelihood of permission being granted. Obviously, he was not able to give me certain advice on what the council would decide but it really helped with my decision making.

I didn't end up choosing to proceed with the works (because it was flagged as needing a certificate of lawfulness which would have taken 8 weeks for council review) but this was a really helpful step in my thought process.

From my experience, this company and their manager are corn men particularly their manager is a bull, he enjoy blaming is customers for his advice he knows he had intention in carrying out, but just after the customers money,
I wish i never go with them in the first places.

From the start, Planning By Design have been really on top of things and have kept me informed at every step of our railway carriage coffee shop project with Costa coffee for Five Acre Wood school, a superb place for children and teenagers with learning difficulties.

I'm very happy with this company, they have done all drawings and applications from start to finish for me . Got all approved 👌 Saved so much my time and was stress free . Specially big thank you to Sarah Cornwell for the hard work 😊
Highly recommending . Thank you 😊
Best regards
Jurate Z

Excellent service, efficient, thoughtful and good communication. Highly recommended!