Making an appeal

Sometimes a planning application may be turned down. If you feel that this is unfair or wrong then you have the right to appeal against the decision.

When you can make an appeal

The time limits within which appeals may be made are set out in legislation. The bulk of appeal casework is as follows:

Planning, listed building and advertisement appeals – six months from the date of notification of the Department of the Environment's decision. The Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) is unable to extend this period.

Enforcement Notice appeals – at any time before the date on which the notice is to take effect (specified in the notice). The PAC has no power to extend the period for making an appeal.

Appeals may also be made after a minimum period of two months, or an extended period agreed in writing between the Appellant and Department from the date of the receipt of a valid application if no decision has been issued by the Department.

Who may appeal

Appeals may only be made by or on behalf of the person who made the application. There is no third party right of appeal. This means that objectors or other parties who may have an interest in the proposal cannot make an appeal if they are unhappy about the decision.

The deadline

The deadline for submitting an appeal is now six months from the date of the application decision letter or six months from the date the decision should have been made.

How to make an appeal

All appeals, under the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 must be accompanied by a fee - currently £126 - Cheques should be made payable to the Planning Appeals Commission. Contact details are as follows:

phone: 028 9024 4710
fax: 028 9031 2536
email:info@pacni.gov.uk

Appeals should be sent to:

Planning Appeals Commission
Park House
87-91 Great Victoria Street
Belfast
BT2 7AG

Appeals must be posted or delivered by hand to the Commission's office. Appeals cannot be received 'live' over the Internet.

What it will cost

The appeals process itself is free, however, you and the local planning authority normally have to pay your own expenses whether it is decided by the written procedure, a hearing or an inquiry. The overall cost will depend on whether you employ professional advisers or representatives.

Sometimes, when there is a hearing or an inquiry, one party may be required to pay the other party's costs, as well as their own. The inspector will only do this if the person applying can show that the other side behaved unreasonably, and put them to unnecessary expense.

Appeal procedures

There are two main types of appeal procedure, Written Representation or Hearing.

Two Written Representation (WR) formats are:

Written Representation
Written Representation with accompanied site visit

A Hearing also has two options:

an Informal Hearing
a Formal Hearing

The PAC considers that the WR method is appropriate for a wide range of cases and recommends wider use of the procedure as it has time and cost advantages for all of the parties, particularly the appellant.

For more information on planning and enforcement notice appeals please check the following link:

Planning Appeals Commission Publications page

Withdrawing an appeal

You can withdraw your appeal at any time before it is decided. You may want to do this if, for example, you and Planning reach agreement and can sort out your differences without an appeal.

Complaints

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction by any party involved in the process about the way the PAC handled an appeal. Complaints must be made within six months of the date of the Commission’s appeal decision.

A complaint should be made in writing to the PAC's Chief Administrative Officer. It will normally be acknowledged within seven working days of its receipt.

Complaints raising issues with a bearing on the merits of an appeal which is still being processed by the PAC will not be responded to until consideration of the case has been completed. In the event of legal proceedings being initiated while a complaint is under consideration, the matter will be addressed through the legal process - not the complaints system.

Apart from the circumstances set out above, complaints will be investigated and a full reply will normally be issued within four weeks. Where that is not possible, a holding reply will be issued within the four weeks indicating when a full response will be made. The Commission cannot reconsider or alter an appeal decision once it has been issued.

However, it may issue a corrected decision letter or Commissioners Report (not a revised decision letter or report) correcting: obvious technical and typographical errors or wording which all parties, including PAC, agree cannot be right.

The High Court

Commission decisions or rulings may be challenged by application for a judicial review to the High Court. This must be done promptly or in any event within three months of the appeal decision. You will need legal advice. The grounds for review may only be made on a point of law. This means that it has to be demonstrated that the decision is illegal, irrational or procedurally wrong.