Checklist for a written representations appeal bundle

A written representations appeal is won or lost on a bundle the inspector reads once, in order, without you in the room. So the written representations appeal checklist that matters is not a list of forms. It is a discipline about what goes in, how it is indexed and how each assertion in the statement of case points to a page the inspector can find in under five seconds. Get that right and a modest case reads as a careful one.

Choosing written representations over a hearing

The Planning Inspectorate selects the procedure against its published criteria, and you state a preference with reasons on the appeal form. Written representations suits a case where the issues are capable of being understood from documents and a site visit.

Push for a hearing or an inquiry where the decisive issue needs testing. Contested highway safety evidence, a viability dispute, a heritage balance with competing expert views, or an authority whose reason for refusal rests on an assertion you want to probe. Where the dispute is about the application of policy to facts both parties agree on, written representations is quicker and the inspector gets the same material.

One practical signal. If your case needs the inspector to disbelieve something the council has said, you want the opportunity to question it. If your case needs the inspector to read a policy properly, paper is enough.

The deadline and the start date

Two dates control everything. The deadline for lodging the appeal runs from the date on the decision notice, and the Inspectorate issues a start date once it validates the appeal, with the timetable attached.

Most section 78 appeals must be lodged within six months of the decision notice date. Householder and minor commercial appeals have twelve weeks. Work backwards from that date, because the full case normally goes in with the appeal rather than later.

Structuring the statement of case

Follow the decision notice. Take the reasons for refusal in their numbered order and give each one its own section, because any other structure forces the inspector to reassemble your argument.

Within each section, a reliable pattern is this. State the reason as written. Identify the development plan policy and the national policy relied on, naming the National Planning Policy Framework edition. Set out the facts. Then state the conclusion on that reason and the weight it should carry.

Keep the site description and planning history in a single early section and never repeat them. Put the policy list in an appendix rather than quoting at length in the text. And resist the temptation to argue matters the authority did not refuse on, because every paragraph spent on an undisputed point dilutes the ones that matter.

Where the application was supported by a Planning Statement and a Design and Access Statement, the appeal statement should build on them rather than restate them. Say where the earlier document dealt with a point, cite the paragraph and move on.

Core documents and how to reference them

A core documents list is the single highest-value piece of housekeeping in a paper appeal. It is a numbered schedule of everything the inspector may need, with each item given a reference you then use throughout the statement.

• Decision notice and officer report, including the committee minute where members departed from the recommendation
• Application form, ownership certificate and the drawings as submitted, with revision numbers
• Supporting documents submitted with the application, listed individually rather than as a bundle
• Development plan extracts, limited to the policies in dispute, with the adoption date
• Any supplementary planning document or design guide relied on
• Appeal decisions you rely on, with the appeal reference and date
• Technical reports commissioned after refusal
• Photographs, with a plan showing the viewpoint and the date each was taken

Reference by document number and page, not by document name alone. A statement that says "see CD7, page 12" is checkable. A statement that says "as set out in the drainage report" is not, and an inspector working through twenty documents will not hunt.

Date-stamp photographs and say which season they show. A February site visit against August photographs of a screened boundary is one of the more common unforced errors in amenity appeals.

Dealing with interested party representations

The authority forwards the representations made on the application and the Inspectorate notifies interested parties, who may write in during the appeal. Read them all, then triage.

Answer material planning points with evidence. Note briefly, once, that the remainder are not material: loss of a private view, effect on property values, boundary ownership, the identity of the applicant, and matters governed by other regimes such as party wall or rights of light. Do not answer them individually.

Where an objection raises something material that the council did not refuse on, deal with it properly. An inspector who spots an unanswered material point will consider it whether or not it appears in the reasons for refusal. Where pre-application engagement took place, a short account of it helps, and the approach set out in a neighbour engagement template gives you something to point to.

Conditions, obligations and costs applications

Submit a schedule of suggested conditions with the appeal. Inspectors expect it, it signals that you have thought about implementation, and it gives you influence over the wording of conditions you will have to live with. Draft them against the six tests in the Planning Practice Guidance on conditions: necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the development, enforceable, precise and reasonable in all other respects.

Where an obligation is needed, get the draft deed or unilateral undertaking in during the timetable rather than after it. An appeal allowed subject to an obligation that was never completed is a decision nobody can implement.

If you intend to apply for costs, make the application in writing within the timetable and set out the behaviour, the limb of the guidance and the wasted expense. It belongs in a separate document, not buried in the statement of case.

Where the issue is really a drafting problem with an existing permission rather than a refusal, check whether a non-material amendment request solves it faster than an appeal.

An illustrative bundle index

The following index is illustrative, for a refused pair of dwellings on an infill plot with three reasons for refusal.

1. Statement of case, paginated, with a contents page and a one-page summary of the case on each refusal reason
2. Appendix A: core documents list, numbered CD1 to CD18
3. CD1 to CD4: decision notice, officer report, committee minute, application form and certificate
4. CD5 to CD9: drawings as submitted, by number and revision, with a site location plan at a stated scale
5. CD10 to CD12: development plan policy extracts in dispute, with the adoption date on each
6. CD13 to CD15: arboricultural report, surface water drainage note and highway technical note commissioned after refusal
7. CD16 to CD18: two appeal decisions relied on, and the authority's own design guide extract
8. Appendix B: photograph sheets, each with a viewpoint plan and date
9. Appendix C: schedule of suggested conditions
10. Separate document: application for an award of costs, if one is being made

Paginate continuously, submit a single searchable file per document, and name files so they sort in the order of the index. Small discipline, measurable effect.

If you are rebuilding the evidence base for the appeal, you can see which reports the case is likely to need and draft the supporting statements as a starting point for your own review.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.