Making your Enforcement Appeal
Appendix 5 – Guidelines for submitting appeal documents, statements and proofs of evidence
Why have we published these guidelines?
We are publishing these guidelines now to prepare everyone for the time when the Planning Inspectorate’s Planning Casework Service, our new online system for making and tracking appeals, will come into operation.
At that time you will be able to submit your appeal documents electronically if you want to. If you decide to submit your appeal documents on paper we will scan them to create an electronic copy on our system.
Whichever method you choose your appeal statements, proofs of evidence and other documents, photographs and plans will appear on the external face of the Planning Casework Service and will be available for anyone to view through the Planning Portal.
Viewing handwritten forms and other documents
It helps readers of these documents if the originals from which they are scanned are as clear and legible as possible. With the reader in mind, we suggest that when completing forms by hand you print lettering in capitals and use black ink.
Viewing typed documents
Most appeal documents are created using a computer these days and authors have a choice of typeface (font) that they can use.
As many people will read these documents onscreen rather than download and print them, we suggest that you to use a typeface like Arial or Verdana.
These are sans serif styles, a category of typefaces that do not use serifs (small lines at the ends of characters). Serif fonts include Times New Roman.
Research has shown that documents in a sans serif typeface are easier to read onscreen.
Ideally, we would like you to use a font size of 11 point or larger.
Preparing your statement or proof of evidence
Scanning paper documents presents us with a significant challenge, because of the high volumes of paper documents that we are likely to receive until people become familiar with the electronic service and the benefits that it offers.
It helps our scanning operation if paper documents are of a standard size and loosely bound rather than of an irregular size and firmly bound.
It would assist us greatly, if you would prepare your appeal documents in the following way:
- Please use A4 size paper wherever possible.
- Please ensure that the pages of documents are numbered.
- Print documents on both sides of a page if you want to, but it helps us if the quality of paper is such that something on one side of the page does not show through to the other side.
- Please ensure photocopied documents are clear and legible. The quality of poor photocopies cannot be improved in the scanning process.
- Please place photographs, maps, plans, etc., in a separate appendix and cross-reference them within the main body of the document.
- Please do not stick photographs to sheets of paper. It is much better if you put them in an envelope and write the site address or appeal reference number, if known, on the back.
- Please bind documents in such a way that bindings can be undone quickly without damaging the document. For this reason it is better to avoid using wire or plastic spiral binders.
- Please avoid using cover sheets, sleeves or other bindings that do not add value or information. They complicate preparation for the scanning operation and, if scanned, will increase the size of the electronic file making it slower to open or download.
- Please do not send valuable original documents unless these are specifically requested.
- Please do not include post-it notes or small attachments which might be dislodged easily or lost.
What is the Planning Casework Service?
The Planning Casework Service will be introduced soon. It is an online service that will give people of England and Wales wider and easier access to the planning system.
It will provide the Planning Inspectorate with a new system for our staff to manage casework. In addition, it will provide direct access to our workflows for anyone else to view through the Planning Portal so that people can track the progress of cases.
For more information about the Planning Casework Service visit: www.planningportal.gov.uk/pcs
