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Watford Borough Council
Planning appeals
In England and Wales, all planning appeals are dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate which is part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).
Third parties, such as objectors to a proposed development, have no right of appeal against the Council’s decision.
If you are the applicant and you are dissatisfied with the Council’s decision to refuse your application, or you are unhappy with a condition it has imposed, you have a right of appeal to the Secretary of State. Your appeal must be lodged within 6 months of the date on your decision notice.
You should only make an appeal to the Secretary of State after you have tried to negotiate with the Local Planning Authority to achieve a satisfactory conclusion.
Appeals can also be made if the Council is taking longer than the statutory eight weeks to determine your application. (It would be ideal to first check with the case officer at the Council whether a decision is in fact imminent because you will probably have to wait many weeks for a decision from the Secretary of State, depending upon the nature of the development proposed).
An appeal can be determined by a Public Local Inquiry, which is carried out by an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State, where both the appellant and Watford Council give their respective cases.
In less complex cases an informal hearing procedure can be opted for, where each side presents a case on a more informal basis than that of the Public Local Inquiry, generally without legal advisors being present. Interested parties such as local residents often get the opportunity to give their opinions.
Alternatively, at the request of either party, the appeal can be dealt with by means of written representations which are also considered by an Inspector. The decision is final and can only be changed by the High Court on a point of law.
Once you have lodged your appeal the Planning Inspectorate will write to you with a date for a site visit or a date for a hearing. Following the site visit, or the hearing, the Planning Inspectorate will write to inform both you and the council of their decision.
The length of this process depends on the caseload of the Planning Inspectorate at the time of the appeal. For more information, please follow the links below:
Useful links
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