The Site Visit

In a similar way to which a planning officer will have visited your site with the planning application plans, one of our Planning Inspectors will visit your site to judge the likely effect of your proposal on its surroundings.  The Inspector will do this alone.  This differs from current practice where you may ask to accompany the Inspector, although you cannot dicuss your case with the Inspector if you do accompany him or her.  Under the pilot the purpose of the visit remains the same.  The Inspector is simply there to view the site and surroundings in the light of what you and the Council (and any other interested parties) have said in writing.

The appeal form will ask you if you think the Inspector could see everything from public land.  We will also ask the LPA for their view.  If you both agree, we will arrange for the Inspector to view the site from public land.

If the Inspector does need to enter your site (for instance because the proposal is at the back of your house), we will write to you giving you a morning or afternoon slot on a particular date.  Your presence is required simply to allow the Inspector access to the site: no representations nor discussions of the grounds of refusal and appeal will be conducted.  Therefore, if you are not available you may make arrangements for another person to allow the Inspector access to the site.  The Inspector is simply there to observe the site in relation to the appeal proposal.  The LPA will not be required to attend the site as they do now.

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