Costs Awards in Planning Appeals
Q6 What is unreasonable behaviour?
Behaviour which led directly to an unnecessary appeal to the Secretary of State might be considered unreasonable. For instance, the local planning authority might be unable to produce evidence at the inquiry to support each of their reasons for refusing planning permission, or for imposing a condition on a grant of planning permission. Or the way in which one party has conducted their part of the proceedings might be considered unreasonable. For instance, through the fault of one party, the inquiry has had to be adjourned, or unnecessarily prolonged, or cancelled, resulting in unnecessary expense.
Late cancellation of the inquiry or hearing may also lead to an award of costs if it was due to unreasonable behaviour by one of the parties. Examples are if the local planning authority withdraw one of their reasons for refusing planning permission, or issuing an enforcement notice, or they concede a ground of appeal once the inquiry (or hearing) date is fixed, without good reason; or if the appellant withdraws the appeal (or ground of appeal) after the inquiry (or hearing) date is fixed, but cannot show that there has been a material change of circumstances since the appeal was first made.
Another example is if the appellant fails to attend, or be represented at, an inquiry (or hearing) without good reason. Other examples of unreasonable behaviour which may justify an award of costs are given in DOE Circular 8/93 (Welsh Office Circular 23/93).
