Costs Awards in Planning Appeals
Q5 When will costs be awarded?
An award of costs is always at the Secretary of State's discretion. But he would normally make an award if:
- one of the parties has applied for costs
at the appropriate stage - usually
before the inquiry or hearing is concluded;
or immediately after receiving confirmation
that the inquiry (or hearing) has
been cancelled; or before the Planning
Inspector's site inspection in the exceptional
kind of case mentioned in Q3 ; and
- a party has behaved 'unreasonably'; and
- this 'unreasonable' behaviour has caused the applicant for costs to incur or waste expense unnecessarily.
