Planning Applications & Appeals.
Our Town and Country Planning Team bring years of planning applications and appeals experience. Every case is handled with the greatest prospect of success.
Planning applications can be time-consuming.
We can handle it for you.
We undertake an objective review of the planning policies relevant to your proposal. We can assist with applications for Certificates of Lawful Development and advise whether Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs).
We specialise in advising on planning applications and appeals for a range of clients.
Once we have understood your situation and case, we undertake an objective review of the planning policies relevant to your proposal and as a result of our expertise and experience can bring added value to a difficult application to help it through the process by ensuring that all the important issues are thought through and dealt with.
We can assist with applications for Certificates of Lawful Development and advise whether Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are required for applications. We can also advise in relation to more challenging aspects of the process you may need to consider such as lawful fall backs and immunity.
On your behalf we will draft detailed submissions in support of your proposal and Statements of Case to fully support your application or appeal, always working transparently with you so you understand at all times the work we are undertaking and the timescales and costs involved.
We have been involved in many Hearings and Inquiries and can provide the advocacy required at this later stage of the process. We will also review the expert evidence to ensure it is as robust as possible.
Working With Our Service Team
Adding value to your property assets means successfully negotiating the maze of planning and environmental regulations and liabilities. Our experienced and expert team provide strategic and proactive advice to help you deliver on the legal aspects required.
- Suzanne Tucker
If you have an enquiry in relation to Town and County Planning or want to speak to a member of our expert team, please get in touch.
Did you know we offer a free legal review to all businesses?
Local planning authorities have a target determination period of 8 weeks for most applications. For very large or complex applications it is 13 weeks, and if the application is subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), it is 16 weeks. However, many Councils do not meet to these targets, and will often seek to agree extensions to the deadline. There isn’t a lot that can be done to force an authority to make a decision, although if they fail to determine within the relevant period (or agreed extension), you can appeal, which takes the decision out of the hands of the Council and places it with an independent Inspector appointed by the Planning Inspectorate.
If your planning application has been rejected you can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, which is an independent body that appoints Inspectors to make decisions on behalf of the Secretary of State who will review your application and the Local Authority’s reasons for refusing it and decide whether planning permission should have been granted. The Inspector can either uphold the Council’s decision or grant planning permission and can attach conditions to any consent granted.
You will need to complete an appeal form and submit that to the Planning Inspectorate, together with the application documents and a statement setting out your case, sending copies to the local planning authority. It might help your case to gather additional information in support of your appeal although the Planning Inspectorate will not always accept additional information that was not submitted to the Council as part of your application. The Inspectorate will check the appeal to see if it is valid and then will set a timetable for the appeal process, which may involve further written submissions and/or a hearing or inquiry process.
For most applications the appeal must be lodged within 6 months of the Council’s refusal, although for smaller applications, known as ‘Householder applications’, the appeal must be lodged within 12 weeks.
However, if you have received an Enforcement Notice in relation to the same development the appeal deadline is shortened to only 28 days.
Appeals generally take several months to be decided, although for more complex, larger or controversial schemes, the determination period can be even longer. The timetable and the steps involved will vary depending on which process is to be used to determine the appeal – you can elect your preference but it is the Planning Inspector who will decide which process it considers to be most appropriate for your case: either exchange of written statements, at a hearing (a formal discussion controlled by the Planning Inspector at which you can speak in support of your appeal, the Local Authority will explain their decision and members of the public can attend to give their views), or at a public inquiry which is a more formal process at which evidence is given by you or your representatives and the Council under oath.
Appeals can be lodged in relation to the following planning decisions:
- the refusal by a local planning authority to grant planning permission
- the failure of the local planning authority to make a decision in relation to a planning application within the deadline to determine it (or an extended deadline agreed with the you or your agent)
- the grant of planning permission with conditions attached which you find unacceptable or do not agree should be required or which you consider should be re-phrased
- the refusal of the Local Authority to issue a Certificate of Lawfulness
- Enforcement Notices issued requiring you to stop a specific use of land or to remove a building or other form of development (or both)
