Planning appeals for Newbies

michaels

Has anyone been through the planning appeals process. I know nothing about it. I guess I need a planning consultant but how much does it cost, how long does it take, can the disgruntled neighbours get involved and run up costs that I might end up having to pay?

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Mark_Mark

I don't know about cost you'll have to pay, but if it goes to a committee then I'm sure someone would have to present the objection.

saversfriend

We're in the process of a planning appeal - it's all done online.

On your refusal letter from the council you should have details of how to appeal.

You just need to write out your supporting documents* and submit them to the appeals board who will investigate in one of the following ways:
- Through a site visit and considering the written comments from you and the council (by far the most common - all done online)
- Through a face to face meeting with you vs the council
- Through a public enquiry if you're planning a huge project.

* Rules have changed since we started our appeal and less documents are now required.

I'd advise looking through planning applications and appeals online and finding out which successful ones are similar to the nature of your appeal.

Good Luck!

System

You need to sit down and look at why it has been refused and if it would be possible to overcome those issues.
Did you have someone prepare the plans/submit the planning application?
It's a fairly simple process but sometimes it is definitely worth getting a decent planning consultant to write the statements in plannerese!

What kind of project is it and why is it going to appeal?

georgiac

I fell victim to over officious planning officers who were determined to stamp their mark on my plans.

I was very fortunate that I found a tremendous Planning Consultant who managed to get them to reconsider their views.

It cost me £150 but to be honest I consider that to be a bargain compared with what they wanted to reduce my plans to.

Alpha58

I suspect it depends on which LA you are dealing with. In our area it's all online; I made a point of taking a copy of the plans to each of the neighbours to discuss with them first and give them an opportunity to raise any objections or concerns before we submitted the planning application. All was submitted online and - unbelievably - permission was granted exactly four weeks after submission. The only bit of advice is to make sure that you don't scrimp on the architect; ours was cheap and we paid the price when it came to elements of the building work which were physically impossible to do as the drawings were !!!!. Luckily we had a creative and reasonable builder but it could have been much, much worse!

michaels

Thanks for the input guys.

Have submitted application, had it rejected and submitted a revised application that addressed the original grounds for refusal as much as possible.

New refusal is on the grounds that it would be overbearing to one neighbour, plannin gofficer also mentions that it would cause overshadowing and loss of light to the neighbours garden. Before resumission we looked at getting a shadowing diagram for the garden but were advised by the consultant that it so clearly did not breach the standard BRE guidlines for showing that no diagram was needed, only a rough shadow plot with the midday equinox shadowing marked on which we supplied.

So the issue seems to be down to 'overbearing' for which their doesn't seem to be a fixed set of rules that I can find but it is down to the individual planning officers judgement. It looked possible in the first place because something similar had been done on a very similar but slightly smaller site within half a mile 6 years ago although it is true that the aspect was different on the one that was approved but against that we are propsing a smaller development further from the affected boundary.

Our LA takes 8 weeks for a normal application and planning consultants seem to suggest that preparing an appeal costs 3k (plus vat and any extra drawings like the show diagram). The permission is worth probably 100k though so it may be worth pursuing. One route seems to be to put some pressure on by submitting an appeal and then at the same time discussing revised plans with the planning dept....