Making Your Enforcement Appeal (Guide)

The written procedure

Appeals which are decided by the written procedure are governed by The Town and Country Planning (Enforcement)(Writtten Representations Procedure)(Wales) Regulations 2003 SI No. 395 (W.54). The timetable for the written procedure is designed to make the appeal proceed quickly but fairly. The diagram at Appendix 1 shows the timetable. Everyone involved in the appeal should keep to the timetable or their representations are likely not to be taken into account.

The grounds of appeal and supporting facts, set out on the appeal form, make up your case. If you do not give them to us or we think your grounds and facts are inadequate, we will ask you for more details. If we do not receive them in time we will not deal with your appeal on any of the grounds which are not supported by facts.

The regulations say that the LPA must fill in a questionnaire and send it to you and us with documents to support their decision. These documents include the relevant plans or policies on which the decision to issue an enforcement notice was based.

If you or the LPA want to say any more, we must receive two copies within six weeks of the ‘starting date’. We will send a copy of your comments to the LPA and send you a copy of anything they send us. We will also send you any comments from interested persons.

Within nine weeks of the starting date, we must receive from you and the LPA any comments you may wish to make on each other’s statement and those made by any interested persons. If we receive these outside the time limit, we will rarely consider them.

Do not comment just for the sake of it.

Late comments

We expect everyone involved to keep to the timetable. If we receive representations from you, the LPA or interested persons after the time limit ends, the Inspector will not normally take them into account when deciding your appeal. However, the Inspector may ask for more information from you or the LPA, in which case we will send a copy of that information to you or the LPA. We will allow time for comment.

The site visit

We will send the appeal papers to the Inspector. He or she will study the enforcement notice, appeal papers and comments, and will normally visit the site.

If you said on your appeal form that the Inspector can view the site from public land, and the LPA agree, we will arrange an unaccompanied site visit where the Inspector will not meet anyone.
The Inspector will need to be accompanied only if the site cannot be seen from public land. Where an accompanied site visit is necessary we will notify you and the LPA about the arrangements. In such cases the Inspector must be accompanied by you, or your representative, and the LPA to ensure fair play. At the site visit you may point out physical features, which you have referred to in your statement but the Inspector will not listen to any arguments by you or the LPA about your appeal. Anything you want to say about your appeal must be in writing.

---

Accessibility | Contact Us | Privacy Statement | Site Feedback | Site Map | Planning Portal | Directgov | Gov news | Crown Copyright © 2004

---