Information following a planning decision
There are number of options following your planning decision which are as follows:-
- Appeals
- Non material amendments
- Discharge of conditions
- Varying a planning condition
1. Appeals
Your Local Planning Authority makes decisions on planning applications.
Reasons to appeal
- you were refused planning permission for reasons that you think go against the LPA’s development plan or planning policy (you can usually find these on their website)
- you were granted planning permission with conditions you object to - you’ll need to explain why you think they’re unnecessary, unenforceable, vague, unreasonable or irrelevant
- the LPA has not given you a decision on your application and 8 weeks have passed since the date they told you they’d received it (or a different deadline you agreed with us has passed)
For major projects, you can only appeal if 13 weeks have passed (or a different deadline you agreed with us has passed)
- You can also appeal a listed building consent decision.
- Examples of a major project include a development with 10 or more dwellings, or a building with floor space of more than 1,000 square metres.
Timescales for submission of an appeal
You can submit an appeal for a householder application and minor commercial development (such as ground floor security shutters) up to 12 weeks from the date of the date on the decision letter you received from the local planning authority.
For advertisement applications you can submit and appeal up to 8 weeks from the date on the decision letter.
For all other development you can submit and appeal up to 6 months from the date of the decision letter.
Who can appeal
You can appeal a decision for an application you made yourself, or appeal on behalf of the applicant.
There is no right of appeal for third parties (objectors, neighbours etc). But you can comment on an appeal.
Applying for costs
You can apply for an ‘awards of costs’ if you believe the LPA has cost you money by behaving unreasonably. For example, if you think their behaviour has caused you to miss a deadline.
The LPA can also apply to get costs from you.
2. Non Material Amendments
It may be necessary to make amendments to proposals that were originally approved following the granting of planning permission. A non-material amendment may be applied to approve a minor change to the planning permission and doesn’t breach any conditions originally placed on the consent.
It is up to the local authority to decide whether any amendment(s) sought are ‘non-material’ in nature as national government does not have a statutory definition of ‘non material’. You may want to contact the Planning Department before submitting this type of application.
A new planning application will be required if the Council’s Planning Department consider that the amendment is ‘material’ in nature.
Details about non material amendments and process can be found here.
3. Discharge of conditions
You can apply to have conditions attached to your planning approval discharged so that your development can commence. Details will have to be submitted to show you intend to meet the condition, for example the external materials to be used or provide supporting information to demonstrate compliance – a traffic assessment for example. A single application can cover a number of conditions associated with a planning decision.
Once a discharge of conditions application is accepted as valid the conditions should be discharged within 8 weeks.
Please use the following link to find out more:
Discharge of Conditions applications (details reserved by condition)
4. Varying a planning condition
Planning Applications to remove or vary a condition once planning permission has been granted are also referred to as Section 73 applications, and an application for Removal or Variation of condition can be used to removed or change conditions that have been previously imposed. You will have to provide proof that the conditions are no longer reasonable or relevant and the planning authority can grant such permission unconditionally or subject to different conditions. The Council’s planning department can also refuse the Section 73 application if they decide the original condition(s) should continue.
The above also applies to Listed Building Consents.
Please use the following link: