Planning Appeals

•If you seek permission to carry out works to your property and your application isn't decided within a set period (usually 8 weeks), or the application is refused or you do not agree with one or more of the conditions on approval you have a right to appeal. Appeals are made to the First Secretary of State in England. All appeals are administered by the Planning Inspectorate.

•The deadline for submitting an appeal is now 6 months from the date of the application decision letter (or in the case of non-determination, 6 months from the date the decision should have been made). The 6 month period applies to all planning (section 78), listed building and conservation area consent (section 20) appeals.

The change to the appeal period affects:

•local planning authority decisions made on or after 14 January 2005 and

•decisions in the pipeline on 14 January 2005 - i.e. where the previous appeal period of 3 months had not elapsed. This means that the six month period to appeal will apply to all decisions made by local planning authorities on or after 14 October 2004. Note: It will not apply retrospectively to decisions where the appeal period had elapsed by 14 January 2005.

Details of the appeal procedures can be found accompanying the decision notice, or by visiting the Planning Portal or the Planning Inspectorate websites.

There are 3 ways in which an appeal can be dealt with:

1. Written Representations - this is the quickest method. The appellant and the Council prepare written statements for the Planning Inspectorate to consider. A Planning Inspector will visit the site and then issue a decision.
2. Informal Hearing - with the agreement of both parties and where the planning issues are quite straightforward an informal hearing may be called. This is a discussion of the issues involved between the parties which is led by the Planning Inspector.
3. Public Inquiry - each side presents its case verbally before an Inspector and the witnesses for each side can be cross-examined by the opposing parties. This is usually a more lengthy and expensive procedure as it normally involves professional representation and complex arguments.

The council will normally agree to the "written representations" method of dealing with appeals unless the proposals have aroused a significant level of concern in the neighbourhood and, in the opinion of the council, the issues raised by the proposals need to be explored in the presence of an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State.

Even when an appeal has been lodged the council is willing, where appropriate, to see whether an acceptable solution can be achieved by submitting a new application.

The Inspector's decision is final and you have no further right of appeal except to the High Court on a point of law. There is no third party right of appeal other than on a point of law, although third parties can be involved in the appeal process and are asked for comments on an appeal.

Appeal Forms are available from the Planning Inspectorate , and you can make, track and search for certain kinds of appeals online at the The Planning Portal website.

Information relating to all appeals against the London Borough of Hackney is available to dowload from the 'Downloads' box on the right of this page.

Useful link www.Planning -Inspectorate.gov.uk

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Page updated: 27 Dec 2007