Radical change to how planning appeals will work

An end to dramatic planning appeal hearings?

A few days ago, the Government published its new procedural guide for how planning appeals will work from 1 April. It’s fair to say that the consequences for ‘interested parties’ like town and parish councils and community groups will be profound and will require them to reorganise how they comment on planning applications.

The changes relate to by far the most common (95%) of the three types of planning appeal – written representations. To date this route has been used for minor schemes but from April it will be default route of all types of schemes (known as ‘Part 1’) apart from those where the application has not been determined by the planning authority or for listed building consent (‘Part 2’). The decision to switch from this default route to either a Hearing or Inquiry route will be for the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) alone.

But, the main consequence is that the ‘Part 1’ procedure does not allow for the appellant, the planning authority (LPA) or interested parties to submit any new material for the appeal after it has been lodged. The PINS Inspector will rely solely on the application documents (including any comments made by interested parties) and the LPA decision notice, committee minutes and officer report.

This will mean that it is crucial that town and parish councils and community groups make their comments on planning applications that will be ‘appeal ready’. In practice that will mean spending more time scrutinising the most important application documents and anticipating where the applicant/appellant and/or LPA is or could misapply key planning policies. With these changes affecting applicants as well, we would expect more and longer documents to be submitted.

We know from experience that applicants regularly underplay the weight and relevance of neighbourhood plan policies in their planning statements. And we know that LPAs too often make mistakes in applying those policies with the proper weight. It will therefore be vital that communities’ comments add value and are sharpened up – ‘less is more’.

Until we see how PINS operates the new Regulations, we advise town and parish councils and community groups to put in place a protocol to identify those major planning applications they anticipate will be refused and to comment on them accordingly. As ever, seeking professional planning advice could also be an even better idea.