Should I Appeal? A Summary of the Process

Should I Appeal And How?

If we turn down your planning application, you have the right to challenge that decision and appeal to an independent body. The Planning Inspectorate (an Executive Agency of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) deals with planning appeals. Before you appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, you should look carefully at the reasons why we turned the application down. You should also speak to us to see if you can resolve any problems – perhaps by changing your proposal. Often, if you change your proposal and apply again within one year of the refusal, you will not have to pay another fee. An appeal should be the last resort.

Who Can Appeal?

The only person who can lodge an appeal is the person who made the planning application or through an agent acting on their behalf. Objectors to a planning application have no rights of appeal.

What Can Be Appealed Against?

You can appeal if:

• Planning permission has been refused
• You object to a condition imposed by us
• We have not made a decision within eight weeks (13 weeks for larger/complex applications) of your application being valid, unless you have agreed to a request from the Planning Section for extra time

If you are going to appeal, you must do so within six months from the date of the notice of the Council’s decision (within 8 weeks, if the appeal relates to advertisement consent). If you are going to appeal against an Enforcement Notice or Breach of Condition Notice, the procedures are different and, in such circumstances, you should seek advice from us and/or the Planning Inspectorate.

The guidance within this note applies to appeals against the refusal by the Council for planning permission, Listed Building Consent or Conservation Area Consent.

Making An Appeal

To make a valid appeal, you must use an official form. You can get forms from:

• Post: Customer Support Unit,
  The Planning Inspectorate,
  Room 3/15 Eagle Wing,
  Temple Quay House,
  2 The Square,
  Temple Quay,
  Bristol, BS1 6PN.
• Phone: 0117 372 6372

Please tell the Planning Inspectorate whether your appeal is to do with planning permission or Listed Building or Conservation Area consent, as the forms are different. Do not leave it too late – remember the six month time limit.

The grounds of appeal are your statement of your case. It is important that you set them out fully and clearly. You need to explain why you disagree with the Council’s decision. It is not enough to say that you do not accept the Council’s reasons. If you do not give your grounds of appeal, your appeal may not be valid.

Procedures For Dealing With Appeals

There are three ways in which appeals are dealt with:

Written representations

This method is usually easiest and quickest, provided that the Council agrees; it avoids an expensive inquiry. A simple timetable follows: you make a statement in writing of your case, the Council does the same, you see the Local Authority’s case and they see yours, both parties have the chance to comment. The Inspector receives this information, makes a site visit and comes to a decision.
If you said in your appeal that the Inspector can view the site from public land and the Council agrees, the Planning Inspectorate will arrange an unaccompanied site visit. On these visits the Inspectors are not allowed to discuss anything about the case. If the Inspector needs to go on private land to make his or her inspection, an accompanied site visit will take place. Both you and the Council have to be there or have someone to represent you.

Public Inquiry

If there are any particular points or statements from supporters which you feel would come out better at an Inquiry, then this is the best method to use. If you are going to the expense of an Inquiry, it is usually better to seek professional advice on preparing and presenting your case. Inquiries are normally held for larger development proposals.

Hearings

In certain cases, the Planning Inspectorate may suggest that the Inquiry takes the form of a “Hearing”. This is a less formal procedure where discussion takes place between the Inspector and interested parties.

The Time And Money Involved

The time and money it takes to make an appeal depends on how complicated the appeal is. Around 80% of appeals are decided on the basis of written exchanges of information. This is the quickest method.

You do not have to pay for the appeal itself, but you will inevitably have some expenses. The overall cost will depend on whether you employ professional advisers. Remember that you will have to pay your own costs and you can seldom recover them form the Local Planning Authority, even if your appeal is successful. You can, of course, withdraw an appeal at any time simply by informing the Secretary of State and the Local Planning Authority. However, if you withdraw your appeal after the Planning Inspectorate has arranged an inquiry or hearing and written to you to tell you the date and it thinks you have behaved unreasonably, you may have to pay the costs of the other people involved in the enquiry or hearing.

Who Decides Your Appeal?

You make planning appeals to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, almost all appeals can be decided by Planning Inspectors. The Secretary of State can take over any planning decision, but does so in less than 20% of cases, usually if they are important or controversial.

The Inspector's Decision

The Inspector will write to you with his or her decision and send a copy of the decision letter to the Council. The Planning Inspectorate aims to decide all written representation appeals within four months from the date of the appeal and within nine months following an appeal inquiry.

Can I Challenge The Decision?

You can only challenge a point of law, if you feel the requirements of the planning acts or rules of procedure have not been carried out. Any challenge must be made through the High Court and you will need legal advice to pursue any challenge.

Costs

You normally have to pay your own expenses for the appeal, as does the Council. You can ask the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister or the Inspector to order us to pay all or some of the costs. We can also ask the Inspector to order you to pay some or all of our costs.

The Secretary of State or the Inspector will only order costs to be made if the appellant or Council claiming costs, can show that the other side behaved unreasonably, and put them to unnecessary expense. Such circumstances are infrequent.

What Are My Chances Of Success?

Although some appeals are successful, most are not. Typically, in Worthing, appeals are lodged each year against 27% of all the applications refused permission by the Council. Of these appeals, only 14% are successful. The chances of any appeal succeeding depend on the merits of the proposals and how they fit in with local and national policies.

Setting Ourselves Standards

We have an adopted Service Standard for Processing Planning Appeals, a copy of which is also available upon request at the Planning Reception Desk.

If You Have Any Further Queries

If you have any questions not answered by the above advice, please contact the planning section.

THIS ADVICE IS AVAILABLE AS A LARGE PRINT LEAFLET

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