Making your Enforcement Appeal
11. Complaints and Challenges
Complaints about The Planning Inspectorate
11.1 The first letter we send you accepting your appeal will give the name of your case officer. He or she should be the first person you contact with any queries or complaints about the way we handle your appeal.
11.2 If you have any complaints or questions about the decision, or the way we have handled the appeal, please write to:
The Planning Inspectorate
Quality Assurance Unit
4/09 Kite Wing
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol BS1 6PN
Phone: 0117 372 8252
Fax: 0117 372 8139
E-mail: complaints@planning-inspectorate.gsi.gov.uk
11.3 The Quality Assurance Unit will reply to you, or they will ask a section within the Inspectorate to reply because they have specific specialist knowledge.
The High Court
11.4 The only way you can appeal against our Inspector’s decision is in the High Court. To be successful, you would have to show that the Inspector made a legal or procedural mistake.
11.5 If your challenge is successful we will look at your appeal again. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that the original decision will be reversed. An Inspector may come to the same decision again but for different reasons.
11.6 If you are going to challenge the decision, you must apply to the High Court within 28 days, or 6 weeks, of the date of the appeal decision, depending on the type of challenge. We will send you a leaflet explaining this right with our Inspector’s decision.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
(the Ombudsman)
11.7 If you think that we haven’t treated you fairly, you can ask the Ombudsman to investigate. You can’t approach the Ombudsman direct - an MP must do it for you. This doesn’t have to be your MP but this will usually be the easiest person to ask. Your local library will be able to give you the name and address of your MP. The Ombudsman has no power to question the merits of your appeal or to alter our decision. He or she is only concerned with the way we deal with and administer appeals. The Ombudsman will usually expect you to have made a complaint to us first before he or she investigates your case.
The Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council
11.8 If you feel that there was something wrong with the basic procedure we used for your appeal, you can complain to the Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council at:
81 Chancery Lane
London
WC2A 1BQ
11.9 The Council will take up your complaint if they think it concerns them. Like the Ombudsman, they aren’t concerned with the merits of your appeal and have no power to alter our decision.
The Local Government Ombudsman
11.10 If you have a complaint about the way the LPA dealt with you, you can, in some cases, ask the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate. However, the Local Government Ombudsman can’t investigate a complaint about a LPA’s decision just because you don’t agree with it, and the Ombudsman has no power to alter their decision. You can get a booklet explaining how to make a complaint by writing to the appropriate Local Government Ombudsman’s office.
11.11 There are three Local Government Ombudsmen in England . Each of them deals with complaints from different parts of the country:
For Greater London:
Local Government Ombudsman
10th Floor
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Phone: 020 7217 4620
Fax: 020 7217 4621
For Surrey , Kent , Sussex , East Anglia ; the south-west, the west, the south and most of central England :
Local Government Ombudsman
The Oaks No 2
Westwood Way
Westwood Business Park
Coventry CV4 8JB
Phone: 02476 695699
Fax: 02476 695902
For Birmingham , Staffordshire, Shropshire , Cheshire , Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and the north of England :
Local Government Ombudsman
Beverley House
17 Shipton Road
York YO30 5FZ
Phone: 01904 663200
Fax: 01904 663269
11.12 We also deal with other types of appeal.
If you are appealing against being refused planning permission, this is who you should contact.
Planning Appeals
The Planning Inspectorate
Room 3/15 Eagle Wing
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol
BS1 6PN
Phone: 0117 372 8927
If you are appealing against being refused advertisement consent, this is who you should contact.
Advertisement Appeals
The Planning Inspectorate
Room 3/17 Eagle Wing
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol
BS1 6PN
Phone: 0117 372 8577
Fax: 0117 372 8181
