Friday, June 13, 2008
What is the true cost of the planning appeal process
Yesterday I had a telephone call from a reporter on a local newspaper asking about the appeal that has just been lodged against the Council’s decision to refuse planning permission to build a new dwelling on a piece of land in Church Eaton.
While an appeal is not really big news the difference with this one was that it is the fifth appeal on this particular site. The site in question is rather narrow but is even more constrained by the fact that a sewer and a culvert run through it and as such the other four appeals were all refused by the Planning Inspector for a variety of reasons.
The newspaper rang to talk about how much these appeals were costing the ratepayer, especially as the latest was going to be dealt with by way of a public hearing. Unfortunately I was not much help so I had to refer the caller to the Council’s Planning Department.
What is clear is that as the Planning laws stand the owner of any site can keep putting in planning applications so long as they are significantly different and if refused can keep going to appeal. While there will be little or no cost to the applicant the Council will have to pay for officers time to collect together the information the Planning Inspector wants, and as is the case with this latest appeal will have to pay for the officers to attend the hearing.
Of course the planning system is rather one-sided and had any of the applications on this site been approved the local residents who had objected to the proposal would not have had the same chance to appeal against the decision. So which ever way you look at it the local residents and council tax payers who come off worse in this appeal process.
While an appeal is not really big news the difference with this one was that it is the fifth appeal on this particular site. The site in question is rather narrow but is even more constrained by the fact that a sewer and a culvert run through it and as such the other four appeals were all refused by the Planning Inspector for a variety of reasons.
The newspaper rang to talk about how much these appeals were costing the ratepayer, especially as the latest was going to be dealt with by way of a public hearing. Unfortunately I was not much help so I had to refer the caller to the Council’s Planning Department.
What is clear is that as the Planning laws stand the owner of any site can keep putting in planning applications so long as they are significantly different and if refused can keep going to appeal. While there will be little or no cost to the applicant the Council will have to pay for officers time to collect together the information the Planning Inspector wants, and as is the case with this latest appeal will have to pay for the officers to attend the hearing.
Of course the planning system is rather one-sided and had any of the applications on this site been approved the local residents who had objected to the proposal would not have had the same chance to appeal against the decision. So which ever way you look at it the local residents and council tax payers who come off worse in this appeal process.
# posted by Barry Stamp @ 6:32 PM 
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