There's usually a
way through.
Refusals, notices, tangled sites, stuck sales. Planning problems untangle in conversation — with someone who has spent fifteen years finding routes to yes.
A person reads every enquiry, and a person replies — within a day.
How a difficult application tends to go — and where it ends
Whatever's happened, it has probably happened before.
Start with the sentence that sounds most like yours. Each one opens the page that answers it.
"It's been refused, and I don't know if the reasons are fair." Then let's read them together. Most refusals are survivable — the reasons tell us which route. "An enforcement notice arrived this morning." Take a breath, and call before you write back. The first conversation settles most of the panic. "The sale is stuck on whether the extension was ever lawful." That's usually provable. A certificate is quicker and cheaper than most people expect. "Everyone says the site can't be developed. The green belt, apparently." Apparently is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Constraint sets the bar — it doesn't close the door. "We have permission, but the conditions have made it unbuildable." Conditions can be discharged, varied and sometimes challenged. The permission is worth more than you think. "I've got an architect. What I don't have is the planning argument." Keep your architect — they're doing their job. We'll write the case, and hand it back.
Tom, photographed for the studio.
Planning is a system.
Getting through it is a craft.
Hollington Consultancy is Tom Hollington — fifteen years as an architectural designer on the South Coast, most of them spent winning consents in the sectors where consent is hardest: licensed premises, pharmacy, care, retirement living, heritage.
The practice exists because the difficult cases kept arriving. What they needed wasn't another drawing. It was someone who knows how the decision gets made — and the patience to build the case properly.
The rules changed this spring.
Talking early matters more than it did.
Since April 2026, most planning appeals are decided on the evidence the council already had — new material rarely gets in later. It simply means the case is made in the application, not after it. Come and talk before you submit, and it's an advantage rather than a worry.
What the new rule means for you, in plain EnglishEight ways in. One way of working.
Every instruction starts the same way — an honest read on where you stand, including when the kindest answer is "don't".
Problems like yours, sorted.
The three stories below are specimens, shown so you can see the shape — Tom's real cases take their place before launch.
Refused twice on openness grounds. We rebuilt the case on the evidence and took it to appeal.
allowed at appealA notice over an alleged change of use, and a family who'd already replied twice. We took over the correspondence.
notice withdrawnA sale stalled on a thirty-year-old extension with no paperwork. We assembled the proof.
certificate granted, sale completedFifteen years of consents, in the sectors where consent is hardest.
Licensed trade, pharmacy, care, retirement living, hospitality and heritage — for national names and for people with one difficult site, on the same terms.
Greene KingMitchells & ButlersWhitbreadMarston'sEnterprise InnsBrainsDay LewisMcCarthy and StoneTrethowans
If what you really want is a building,
you want our sister studio.
Set Square Studio designs, consents and builds — one team, one contract, first sketch to finished building. This practice is the other door: planning advice on its own, for people who need a decision more than they need a builder. Whichever door you knock on, we'll point you to the right one.
Meet Set Square StudioTell us what's happened.
A person will reply.
Not a call centre, not a chatbot, not a quote engine. Your note lands with Tom, and you'll have an honest reading of where you stand within a day — including, kindly, when we think you shouldn't spend the money.