The Planning Inspectorate (Wales) - Making Your Lawful Development Certificate Appeal Guide

About the Planning Inspectorate

We are part of the National Assembly for Wales (the Assembly) and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). We deal with lawful development certificate appeals in Wales from our Cardiff office and lawful development certificate appeals for England from our Bristol office. The Inspectors, who decide most appeals, have a variety of backgrounds. These include town planning, surveying, engineering, architecture and law. We choose the Inspectors very carefully and train them thoroughly.

When our office staff get your appeal form, they will collect all the information about your case. If you have any questions about it you can contact your case officer. We will give you their name and phone number. Just before any site visit, hearing or inquiry, the case officer will send your appeal papers to the Inspector, who will study them. In most cases after holding an inquiry or hearing, or visiting the site, the Inspector writes the decision. Your case officer will send the decision to you.

This booklet explains the lawful development certificate appeal procedures for appeals in Wales that are made after 1 April 2003. If you want advice about appeals in England you should contact our Bristol office. The information contained in this booklet was correct when it was published. But it has no legal status. We will deal with every appeal as efficiently as we can, but to do this we rely on everyone's co-operation.

Our Quality Statement

We aim to provide the following in the appeal process:

clear, prompt and polite advice and information;

quick and efficient handling of your appeal;

an open exchange of views between the people involved in the appeal;

fair and unbiased decisions by appropriately qualified people;

clear, logical decisions and reports;

a quick and thorough complaints procedure; and

a service that gives the public confidence in us.