Guide to taking part in planning appeals: Wales, 2003

The written procedure

With this type of appeal, we only consider written evidence from the appellant, the LPA and anyone else who, like you, has an interest in the appeal. We cannot accept any form of taped evidence, as we cannot be sure that everyone involved has exactly the same version.

The LPA will send us copies of any letters of objection or support which it received at the application stage. If you wrote to the LPA at the application stage and you want to make more comments, you must make sure that we receive 3 copies of your comments within the time limit given in your letter from the LPA telling you about the appeal. This is within six weeks of the date that we accept the appeal - we call this 'the starting date'. If we do not receive your letter within the time limit, the Inspector will not normally take your comments into account and we will send them back to you.

Please tell us in your letter if you would like a copy of the appeal decision. We will not acknowledge your letter unless you ask us to. We will send copies of your letter to the appellant, the LPA and the Inspector. If we consider your letter contains racist, libellous or abusive comments, we will send it back to you before the Inspector sees it. If you take out the racist, libellous or abusive comments, you can send your letter back to us. But, we must receive this before the time limit ends. If you want to see what the appellant and the LPA have said, you should be able to see copies of their appeal documents at the local council's offices.

The site visit

The Inspector will want to see the appeal site before he or she makes a decision. But, because everyone concerned has to make their case in writing, we do not allow any discussion during the visit.

If the Inspector can see enough of the site from the road or a public viewpoint, they will visit the site alone. If that is not possible, the appellant and the LPA's representative will go with the Inspector.

There is normally no need for other people to take part in the site visit. However, if you own a property nearby and you want the Inspector to see the appeal site from your property, you should tell us this when you write to us. We will then tell you the date and time of the visit. The Inspector will decide whether they need to come onto your property. If they do, the appellant and an LPA representative must come too. You will not be able to discuss the case, but you can point out relevant facts and features. It is sometimes difficult to know what you are allowed to say, but here is an example.

Your neighbour has applied to build an extension on his home, and you have written to tell us that this extension will overlook some of your windows. You can say to the Inspector: 'These are the windows I mentioned in my letter.' You cannot say: 'These windows will be overlooked because …'

After the site visit

The Inspector will write his or her decision, or send a report to the Assembly. Where the Inspector decides the appeal, we will send a copy of his or her decision to:

• the appellant;
• the LPA;
• and anyone else who wrote to ask us for a copy.

We aim to issue the decision no later than five weeks after the site visit. If the Assembly is making the appeal decision, it may take longer.

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