Making representations to an inspector at appeal

To object to a planning appeal you write to the Planning Inspectorate, not to the council, and you do it against a deadline printed on a letter the council sends you. Miss that date and the inspector will not read what you send. The representations you already made at application stage are passed to the Inspectorate and are considered, so silence at appeal stage does not erase your objection, but it does leave the last word to the appellant.

Appeals are made under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 by the applicant. Neighbours have no equivalent right, which is a separate matter and a source of much frustration.

How you find out an appeal has been lodged

The local planning authority notifies interested parties when an appeal starts. In practice that means a letter or email to everyone who commented at application stage, plus a site notice in some cases and an entry on the council's website.

The letter gives four things you need: the appeal reference, the start date, the procedure (written representations, hearing or inquiry), and the date by which the Inspectorate must receive your comments. Keep it. The appeal reference is how you find the case on the Inspectorate's portal and how your comments get attached to the right file.

If you commented on the application and did not receive a letter, ask the council. Councils work from the list of people who made written representations, and an objection made by phone or at a public meeting will not be on it.

Deadlines and the procedure you are in

For a full written representations appeal, interested parties normally have five weeks from the start date to submit comments. The start date letter states the actual deadline, and that date governs.

Householder appeals run differently. The expedited householder appeals service does not accept fresh third party comments at all. The representations you made to the council are forwarded to the Inspectorate and the inspector reads them, but you cannot add to them or respond to the appellant's statement. That is the trade for a faster process, and it is why the comments you write at application stage matter so much.

For hearings and inquiries, the timetable is longer and you may be able to speak as well as write. Check the procedure named in the letter before assuming.

Send comments to the Inspectorate, quoting the appeal reference, and copy the council if you wish. Late representations are returned. The Inspectorate applies the deadline strictly because the appellant is entitled to know the case against the scheme.

Whether your earlier objection carries over

It does. The council sends the Inspectorate copies of the representations received at application stage along with the officer report and the decision notice.

That has two consequences. First, you do not need to repeat everything. Second, anything you said that was not a planning consideration is now in front of the inspector too, and a letter that led with property values reads worse at appeal than it did at committee.

The useful move is a short supplementary letter that does three things: identifies which of your original points you rely on, responds to the specific grounds in the appellant's statement of case, and adds anything that has changed since the decision. Two pages is usually enough. Inspectors read everything, and length is not weight.

What an inspector can and cannot consider

The inspector redetermines the application. They apply section 38(6), work from the development plan and national policy, and reach their own conclusions on the planning merits rather than reviewing whether the council behaved reasonably.

So the material considerations are the same as they were at committee: policy conflict, design and character, heritage, overlooking and loss of privacy, daylight and sunlight, noise, highway safety, parking, trees, flood risk and drainage. Where your objection rests on loss of light, a Daylight and Sunlight Assessment prepared to the BRE methodology carries far more weight than a description of how dark the kitchen feels.

What the inspector cannot do is discipline the council, award you compensation, or consider private law matters such as covenants and boundaries. Complaints about how the council handled the application belong in an ombudsman complaint, which runs separately and does not affect the appeal.

If you need documents the council has not published, an environmental information request will usually produce them faster than a general enquiry, and the appeal timetable is a good reason to press for a prompt response.

Hearings and inquiries compared

A hearing is a round table discussion led by the inspector, with no cross-examination. Interested parties may usually speak, at the inspector's discretion, and the inspector will often invite comments on a particular topic. Prepare to be asked questions rather than to deliver a speech.

An inquiry is formal. Advocates present evidence from witnesses and cross-examine. Interested parties are normally given a slot to make a statement, commonly on the first afternoon or at a time announced in advance. You are not obliged to be cross-examined, though the inspector may ask you questions.

Where a group wants full participation at an inquiry, including the right to call evidence and cross-examine, there is a route to become a formal party under the inquiry procedure rules. That is a serious commitment, usually involving professional representation, and it is worth taking advice before asking.

Register your intention to speak when the Inspectorate asks for it. Turning up on the day and hoping to be called is a poor strategy at an inquiry with a fixed timetable.

Attending the site visit

Every appeal includes a site visit. It may be unaccompanied, where the inspector views the site from public land alone, or accompanied, where the appellant and a council officer attend.

Interested parties are sometimes permitted to attend an accompanied visit, particularly where access to a neighbouring property is needed to understand an overlooking or daylight issue. If your house is the one affected, say so in your representation and offer access. That offer is frequently accepted and it is the single most useful thing a neighbour can do.

The site visit is not a hearing. The inspector will not discuss the merits, and attempting to argue the case there puts them in an awkward position. Point at things. Answer factual questions. Say nothing else.

After the decision

The decision letter is issued to the appellant, the council and anyone who made representations. Read the reasoning rather than the outcome, because it tells you how the inspector weighed each issue.

A decision can be challenged in the High Court under section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, within six weeks, and only on a point of law. Disagreeing with the planning judgement is not a point of law. Legal advice is essential before starting, and costs exposure is real.

Where a scheme is allowed, attention shifts to conditions. Read them, note which require details to be submitted before works start, and ask the council to consult you on those discharge applications where the condition affects you directly. A developer's Statement of Community Involvement sometimes commits to ongoing engagement, which is worth holding them to.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Appeal procedures and deadlines are set by the Planning Inspectorate and change from time to time, so check the current procedural guidance and the date on your start letter before relying on it.

If you are preparing an application rather than responding to one, browse all 66 report types at PlanScope to see what evidence a council expects.