Refusals and Appeals – Page 10
Why applications are refused, how to fix a resubmission and how the appeal routes work.
Refusals and Appeals articles – page 10
240 articlesRefused on flood risk: the sequential test at appeal
Sequential test failures are decided before the merits of a scheme are ever weighed. Here is how to define the search area, evidence site availability, answer both limbs of the exception test and judge the appeal prospects.
Conditions imposed by an inspector after an appeal is allowed
When an appeal is allowed the inspector chooses the conditions, and the council administers them afterwards. Here is how to influence the schedule during the appeal and work through it once the decision letter lands.
Statements of common ground at hearings and inquiries
A statement of common ground tells the inspector what the parties agree so the event can deal with what they do not. What goes in it, who signs it, and how to draft it.
Appealing a refused prior approval
A prior approval refusal is only lawful on the matters the class prescribes. How to check the decision notice against that list, and whether to appeal or apply again.
Judicial review of a planning decision: grounds and timing
The High Court reviews whether a council acted lawfully, not whether it decided well. The available grounds, the six week deadline, the costs risk and what usually works better.
Third parties at appeal: what objectors can still do
Objections made to the council are passed to the Planning Inspectorate with the appeal file. What third parties can add, how to speak at a hearing or inquiry, and the householder appeal exception.
Resubmit or appeal: choosing after a refusal
The answer usually turns on one question: can the reasons for refusal be designed out. Everything else is programme, cost and appetite for risk.
The appeal form and the documents that go with it
Householder appeals run to a 12-week deadline and most others to six months. Assembling the pack correctly is the difference between a start date and a returned appeal.
The free go: a second application without a fee
The fee exemption for a resubmission is real, and it is lost more often through carelessness than through ineligibility. Same applicant, same site, same character, 12 months.
How much weight an appeal decision carries elsewhere
An inspector's decision letter can help your case or sink it. The weight it carries depends on how close the facts are, how current the policy is, and how you present it.
Refused over trees: root protection and appeal evidence
Most tree refusals are evidence gaps rather than judgement calls. The survey, drawings and root investigation that answer each of the four reasons councils give.
Less than substantial harm: appealing a heritage refusal
Less than substantial harm is a category, not a measure of severity. How to place the harm precisely, apply the Barnwell duty and offer benefits that are actually secured.
Refused on design: using the National Design Guide at appeal
Design refusals read as opinion. The answer is to structure the appeal around the ten characteristics of the National Design Guide and evidence each one.
Refused on highway safety: the evidence that changes minds
A highway refusal is one of the few you can answer with measurements. Speed surveys, sightline drawings, collision records and parking stress data do more than a redesign.
Refused as overbearing: rebuilding a householder case
An overbearing refusal is about outlook and enclosure rather than light. The fix is usually geometry at the boundary, plus a neighbour conversation before you resubmit.
Appeal site visits: accompanied, unaccompanied and preparation
An accompanied site visit is not a hearing. Here is what you can point out, what you cannot say, and the access failures that waste the inspector's visit.
Appealing a condition rather than the permission
An appeal against a condition lets the inspector reconsider the application. A section 73 application does not. Here is how to choose the route that protects the permission.
Enforcement notice appeals and the grounds in section 174
An enforcement notice appeal must be lodged before the notice takes effect. Here is what each of the section 174 grounds argues and how the deemed application works.
Costs at appeal: what unreasonable behaviour means
Costs at appeal require unreasonable behaviour that caused another party wasted expense. Both limbs must be proved, which is why most applications fail.
Writing an appeal statement an inspector will use
Inspectors work through the reasons for refusal and decide under section 38(6). An appeal statement organised the same way is easier to use and more likely to succeed.
The six-month appeal deadline and what starts the clock
The six-month appeal period runs from the date printed on the decision notice, not from receipt. Householder and minor commercial appeals get 12 weeks, and non-determination appeals run from a different date entirely.
Householder appeals and the 12-week deadline
Householder planning appeals must be lodged within 12 weeks of the date on the decision notice. The fast-track written procedure gives you one chance to put your case.
Written representations, hearing or inquiry: choosing
The Inspectorate decides the appeal procedure, not the appellant. What each route involves, when cross-examination earns its cost, and how to ask for a different one.
Reading a refusal notice and what each reason means
The numbered reasons on a refusal notice are written to be defensible at appeal. Read them as instructions and they tell you whether the scheme can be fixed or whether the principle has failed.
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