In-house Planning Department


The in-house Planning Team at Morston bring a commercial focus to the planning process, with particular skills in negotiating sustainable, viable and effective planning permissions. The team has over 20 years experience in town planning, obtaining planning permissions for schemes in England, Wales and Scotland across various disciplines including residential, retail, leisure and employment uses.

Notable recent achievements include planning consent for the following:

  • New 80,000 sq ft out of town supermarket at the Pinguin Foods factory Kings Lynn with associated landscaping, car parking and petrol filling station;
  • New mixed use community in Whitecross, nr Linithgow Scotland comprising 1,500 houses, new primary school, employment and retail uses with associated infrastructure works;
  • 100,000 sq ft of employment space with associated infrastructure at Freebridge Farm, Kings Lynn;
  • Enterprise Centre, live:work units and ancillary retail units at the Nar Ouse Regeneration Area, Kings Lynn;
  • New gym at the former MFI in Bolton and go-kart track in the former MFI in Wigan;
  • Residential development granted for a total of 750 units approx at sites in Wrexham North Wales, Lower Kersal Manchester, Gloucester, Middleport in Stoke and Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire;

The team is responsible for managing all aspects of the portfolio, including the submission of representations to Local Development Frameworks, the renewal of existing planning consents  and the negotiation of S106 Agreements (S75 in Scotland) to ensure that any planning gain requirements are commercially deliverable.

Bringing the planning function in-house has ensured that Morston is able to react quickly to any changes in legislation, be it at National or Local level. In particular, with the advent of the Localism Bill and the National Planning Policy Framework Document in England, Morston remains committed to being one step ahead in anticipating the impact these changes will have. Morston’s core ethos in developing sustainable communities will ensure its schemes will be in accordance with the emerging presumption in favour of sustainable development; whilst the planning teams extensive experience in dealing with all stakeholders in the planning system will ensure that applications are scoped, submitted, negotiated and granted in as smooth a manner as possible.