"The procedure whereby application may be made for outline permission is a valuable one in that it.. enables the principle of development and land use to be established without the need to investigate detailed matters at that stage". Yet this system of outline applications and permissions whereby property owners and developers of all sorts can obtain a bankable assurance of planning status is now subject to question, including a fundamental question raised by the same Court of Appeal judgement from which this quotation comes. In R v Newbury District Council and Newbury and District Agricultural Society, ex p. Chieveley Parish Council (Times Law Report 10/09/98), the Court delivered a severe challenge to outline practice by disposing of the commonly held view that size and scale are covered by the reserving "siting" and "design" in the terms of the current General Development Procedure Order. A second severe challenge is that the recent EU Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (97/11/EC) will make it difficult to submit a valid outline application because the necessity of providing environmental information is at odds with the outline concept. Both these challenges need to be taken seriously, with a view to making an informed decision as to whether the problems can be tackled by the ascertaining and promulgation of good practice only, or whether amendment of the GDPO is called for. To this end, a short piece of research is being undertaken to review current practice, finding out how planning authorities and property professionals are responding to these problems. At the same time, the research will also usefully study other aspects of practice which have been affected by court judgements, such as the sometimes confusing practice of seeking the approval of reserved matters in stages in a large development. It is time anyway for a review of this very common and useful procedural device and the identification of best practice. The research, following the study of the legal and policy background, which is virtually complete, will comprise a postal questionnaire survey of a small number of local planning authority planning departments of different kinds and professional firms, followed by selected case studies leading to a final report by mid-July 1999.

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