Planning appeals
Viewing Appeals
To access recent received or decided appeals and search for older appeals decided by the Inspectorate, visit our online information pages:
If you know the application number, or wish to search by address, ward, date register and many other search options, select 'Advanced Search'. Please remember to input this reference number in full by inserting any necessary /'s or 0's.
Forthcoming Local Inquiries / Hearings
Our Planning Committee Meetings information provides you with details of forthcoming Local Inquiries / Hearings as reported to the Planning / Development Control Committee.
Appeal Procedures
You can make an appeal if the Council fails to reach a decision on your application within eight weeks. You can also appeal to The Planning Inspectorate at the link below against a decision to refuse a planning application or against any conditions that are attached to a planning permission.
You must make your appeal within six months of a planning decision and will usually be determined by an Inspector appointed by the First Secretary of State. The time taken to determine an appeal varies greatly depending on the complexity of the case and the procedure followed. The appeal decision can only be challenged on a point of law or if it felt that the requirements of the Planning Acts or Rules of Procedures have not been carried out. This challenge may be made through the High Court or by judicial review and legal advice will be necessary.
There are three forms of appeal procedures:
- Written Representations
This requires that written statements are submitted to the Inspector by the Council and the appellant. Each party has the opportunity to comment on the other's statement and will usually accompany the Inspector on a site visit. This is usually the quickest procedure
- A Hearing
Designed to create an informal atmosphere, allowing "round the table" discussion, chaired by an Inspector, and is applicable where issues are fairly straightforward.
- A Public Inquiry
This is led by an Inspector, who will consider evidence and subsequent cross examination made by the Council and the appellant (or agents for the parties).
The following Notes to Applicants accompany decision notices dispatched by this Council:
Appeals to the Secretary of State - Notes for applicants
Applicants for Planning Permission
(A) If you are aggrieved by the decision of your local planning authority to refuse permission for the proposed development or to grant it subject to conditions, then you can appeal to the Secretary of State for the Environment under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
(B) If you want to appeal, then you must do so within six months of the date of this notice, using a form which you can get from the Planning Inspectorate at Room 315A(E), Hawk Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6PN.
(C) The Secretary of State can allow a longer period for giving notice of an appeal, but he will not normally be prepared to use this power unless there are special circumstances which excuse the delay in giving notice of appeal.
(D) The Secretary of State need not consider an appeal if it seems to him that the local planning authority could not have granted planning permission for the proposed development or could not have granted it without the conditions it imposed, having regard to the statutory requirements, the provisions of the development order and to any directions given under the order.
(E) In practice, the Secretary of State does not refuse to consider appeals solely because the local planning authority based its decision on a direction given by him.
Purchase Notices
(A) If either the local planning authority of the Secretary of State for the Environment refuses permission to develop land or grants it subject to conditions, the owner may claim that he can neither put the land to a reasonably beneficial use in its existing state nor can he render the land capable of a reasonably beneficial use by carrying out any development which has been or would be permitted.
(B) In these circumstances, the owner may serve a purchase notice on the London Borough Council in whose area the land is situated. This notice will require the Council to purchase his interest in the land in accordance with the provision of Part VI of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
Compensation
(A) In certain circumstances compensation may be claimed from the local planning authority if permission is refused or granted subject to conditions by the Secretary of State on appeal or on reference of the application to him
(B) These circumstances are set out in sections 114 and related provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
