Appeals process

The Planning Inspectorate deals with appeals in England and Wales on behalf of the First Secretary of State (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM)) and the National Assembly for Wales.

The right of appeal is 'solely vested', this means that the appeal must be made by the original applicant(s) for the permission. In cases where there are multiple applicants (for example 'Mr & Mrs') either or both can appeal but only one appeal is allowed per application. If another party wishes to appeal a decision (for example a new owner) they must gain written consent from the original applicant(s) to do so.

The deadline for submitting an appeal is now 6 months from the date of the application decision letter (or in the case of non-determination, 6 months from the date the decision should have been made).

The 6 month period applies to all planning (section 78), listed building and conservation area consent (section 20) appeals. 

The change to the appeal period affects:

• local planning authority decisions made on or after 14 January 2005 and
• decisions in the pipeline on 14 January 2005 – i.e. where the previous appeal period of 3 months had not elapsed.  This means that the six month period to appeal will apply to all decisions made by local planning authorities on or after 14 October 2004.

Note: It will not apply retrospectively to decisions where the appeal period had elapsed by 14 January 2005.

If The Planning Inspectorate don't receive the appeal papers within the time limit, and there are no exceptional reasons for this delay, they won't accept the appeal.