The Planning Inspectorate Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06

Section 5 - What We Do

Planning appeals

The largest component of our work, almost two-thirds, is to determine planning appeals against the decision of a local planning authority to refuse development under Section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

In 2005/06, we received some 22,000 planning appeals in England and Wales. This represented a fall of about 6% on the recent peak year of 2004/05 but is still some 25% higher than the numbers we were receiving four years ago. Furthermore, towards the end of 2005/06, evidence began to emerge that the long-term trend for appeal numbers to rise was resuming.

We began the year facing the consequences of the unprecedented surge in appeal receipts. A backlog of some 4,700 written representation cases had developed, exacerbated by the effects of a decision in England, since reversed, to reduce the period during whichan appeal could be made from 6 to 3 months, as well as by conflicting priorities on Inspector resources. In November 2004, we established a Taskforce to deal with this backlog. As a result of this initiative, which was combined with a range of innovations in our procedures, we eliminated the backlog within nine months.

Appeals may be determined by written representations, which account for by far the greatest proportion, by informal hearing or after a public local inquiry. Ministers establish a suite of targets for our determination of planning appeals.We much improved our performance against those targets in 2005/06, despite the pressures we faced, meeting the target for written representation appeals, though not for those determined at hearing or inquiry.We met all planning appeal targets in Wales.*

* Details of our targets for 2005/06 in England and Wales are given in Annexes C & D respectively.

Secretary of State cases

A substantial proportion of those cases which go to inquiry have either been ‘called in’ or recovered for decision by the Secretary of State (or National Assembly for Wales) because of their national or regional importance. These cases are usually high-profile and are governed by statutory timetables. During the year, the Inspectorate delivered 84.8% of Inspectors’ reports on these cases to the Secretary of State within 7 weeks of the close of the inquiry or site visit, thereby meeting this target.

Among the cases decided under these procedures during the year were significant residential developments such as at the former World War II codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park; the western expansion of Stevenage; and riverside developments in London such as Lotts Road power station. However, Secretary of State and NAW cases are not confined to residential developments but represent the full range of development types, including the siting of a statue of Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square, motorway service areas on the M4, M40 and M25, a number of gypsy sites and an inaugural marine minerals dredging inquiry off the South Wales coast. Ongoing cases of economic significance include the Canatxx gas storage caverns proposal at Fleetwood in Lancashire, the Quinn Glass factory in Cheshire and the second Coventry airport terminal. Future cases in 2006/07 are expected to include airport expansion proposals at Luton and Stansted and new reservoirs in the Thames Valley and East Anglia.

Renewable energy schemes are now a significant element in our work. During the year, decisions were made on major windfarms at Little Cheyne Court, Kent; Scout Moor, Lancashire; and Whinash, Cumbria. The last was refused but the first two were approved by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in accordance with the recommendations of the respective inspectors.There is currently an outstanding, recovered appeal for a windfarm at Hinckley Point. This is a controversial case with 7,000 interested parties; part of the site affects the previously approved “Hinckley C” nuclear power station. An inquiry is being arranged.

The decision to site the 2012 Olympics in London is also generating work. An inquiry into the compulsory purchase order (CPO), promoted by the London Development Agency, to underground power lines crossing the Olympic site, opened on 10 January 2006 and the report from the Inspector has been delivered to the Secretary of State for Trade & Industry.The inquiry into the CPO to create the Olympic Park opened on 9 May 2006 in London Docklands and is due to last for eight to ten weeks.

Enforcement appeals

A second, substantial element of our casework is the determination of appeals under Section 174 of the 1990 Act against the decision of a local planning authority to take enforcement action against an alleged breach of planning control. In 2005/06, we received some 3,800 appeals and met our Ministerial targets for enforcement cases determined by hearings but just missed those for cases determined by written representations or after an inquiry.

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