Planning Appeals
The level of receipts for new appeals in 2003-2004 is forecast to be in the range from 18,850 to 19,400. This represents only a small increase compared to 2002-2003. However, between 2000-2001 to 2002-2003 we have faced a 20.8% increase in workload.

The rapid rise in appeals received in 2002-2003 led to some deterioration in our performance against targets. To cope with this rising demand and backlog, we recruited over 30 new salaried Inspectors in 2002-2003 and substantially increased the number of our part-time, fee-paid Consultant Inspectors. However we face the new financial year with a deficit of resources to workload of some 55 Inspector years.

Other parties in the appeal process can help. For example, it is vital that all parties play their part in meeting targets by submitting documents within deadlines and accepting dates when first offered. On written representation appeals, agreeing to an unaccompanied site visit by the Inspector, where the site can be viewed from public land, can assist greatly.

Given these challenges, Ministers have agreed to tailor our targets for 2003-2004 to achieve optimum outcomes. The target for written representation appeals will remain at 80% of appeals to be decided in 16 weeks. However, given the backlog of informal hearings, which has resulted from the greater numbers of appeals and the proportion of appellants opting for this form of determination, Ministers have agreed that for the coming year the targets for both hearings and public inquiries will be combined at 80% of appeals to be decided in 30 weeks.

Enforcement Notice Appeals
The intake for new enforcement notice appeals in England in 2003-2004 is forecast to be around 3,200. Following widespread consultation, new procedure rules aimed at increasing fairness and streamlining procedures for handling enforcement appeals came into force in December 2002. These changes improve the consistency and clarity of the process by bringing the enforcement appeal procedures very closely into line with those used for planning appeals.
Ministerial targets for enforcement appeals in England will remain the same as last year with 80% of appeals to be decided in 32, 33 and 43 weeks for written representation, hearing and inquiry appeals respectively.

Reports to the First Secretary of State
A Ministerial target for the submission of First Secretary of State reports was introduced in 2002-2003. The current target is that 80% of reports should be submitted within 12 weeks from the close of the inquiry. For 2003-2004, there is a Service Delivery Agreement (SDA) target, shared between the Inspectorate and the Planning Casework Division of ODPM, to decide 80% of cases within 16 weeks of the close of the inquiry. For the Inspectorate, this implies completing Inspectors’ reports within 7 weeks of the close of the inquiry. This will only be achieved through intense case
management in close co-operation with ODPM.

In England it is anticipated that, because of the Town and Country Planning (Residential Density) (London and South East England) Direction 2002, the total number of planning applications called in by the Secretary of State in 2003-2004 could rise, though exact numbers are as yet unclear. The Inspectorate also handles the procedural aspects of called-in listed building and minerals applications.These are also First Secretary of State cases and
it is anticipated that there could be 6 cases in 2003-2004.

Development Plans
During 2003-2004, we will be gearing up to ensure a smooth transition from the current development plan process to the new requirements of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill. We will do this in close cooperation with Government Offices and local planning authorities through active case management, which will allow all parties to achieve the required outcomes by effective planning of their work.

Priority will be given to the examination of Regional Planning Guidance (RPG) on behalf of the Regional Advisory Bodies in the East Midlands, the South East, the East of England and Yorkshire and the Humber, including the Milton Keynes and South Midlands Sub-Regional Study. This is expected to produce a total of up to 7 Examinations.

The 60 development plan inquiries anticipated in England in 2003-2004 will be actively managed and monitored against clear service agreements with the local planning authorities concerned. The Inspectorate will work in partnership with Government Offices to ensure that plans are ready for examination. The use of pre-inquiry meetings to resolve timetabling issues
should shorten the process for delivering reports and reduce the length of formal inquiries into particular aspects of the plan.

We will participate in a new training and accreditation scheme for
Programme Officers, in association with Oxford Brookes University, who will run training courses during 2003. Accreditation will normally follow successful completion of the Oxford Brookes course and satisfactory employment as a Programme Officer for a subsequent development plan inquiry (or an inquiry of similar scale), although provision will also be made for accreditation of experienced Programme Officers on the basis of demonstrated professional competence.

For the longer term, we shall prepare for the implementation of new local development frameworks (LDFs), which will form a major part of our work in future years and to which we refer in our forward look for 2004-2005 and beyond.

Advertisement Appeals
In England we will continue to assist ODPM in the preparation of new Advertisement Control Regulations and procedural rules. An immediate increase in the intake of appeals is not expected. However, with the implementation of the new Regulations in 2003-2004, the number of appeals against discontinuance notices may rise towards the latter half of the year. Consequently, we estimate that the number appeals received will be around 2,000. Our internal target in England is to decide 80% of appeals by written representation within 16 weeks, and by hearing within 22 weeks.

Planning work in Wales

Planning Appeals
We expect an increase in the number of new appeals in 2003-2004 to around 760. Ministerial targets will remain the same in 2003-2004 as last year with 80% of appeals to be decided in 16, 22 and 30 weeks for written representation, hearing and inquiry appeals respectively.We are confident that we will be able to meet these targets.

Enforcement Notice Appeals
We expect to receive around 200 enforcement appeals in 2003-2004.Again we are confident that we can meet our targets. As in England, new procedure rules aimed at increasing fairness and streamlining procedures for handling enforcement appeals will come into force at the beginning of 2003- 2004. Our targets currently stand at 80% of all written representations appeals to be dealt with within 32 weeks and for hearings and inquiries within 43 weeks, which is a combined target.

Reports to the Welsh Assembly Government
In Wales we anticipate some 12 planning applications will be called in by the Welsh Assembly Government during 2003-2004.The Planning Inspectorate in Wales also deals with the procedural aspects of called-in listed building and minerals applications on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government.

Development Plans
In Wales, the new provisions of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill will be introduced authority by authority, generally on completion of Unitary Development Plan (UDP) coverage.We are working closely with the Welsh Assembly Government to ensure that the new provisions are rapidly and effectively introduced in the Pathfinder Authorities, including through producing a model Local Development Plan (LDP), and otherwise generally through a similar approach as for LDFs in England.

Advertisement Appeals
In Wales we anticipate that the number of appeals received will remain stable at around 100 per year. Our internal target in Wales is to decide 80% of all appeals within 15 weeks.

Large Inquiries

A major inquiry into the proposal by Associated British Ports for
development of a deep-water container terminal at Dibden Bay, on
Southampton Water, opened in November 2001, and closed in December 2002. The Inspectorate provided the Inspector, the Secretariat and an inquiry web site. The Inspector’s report is expected in October 2003 and will be a joint Report to the First Secretary of State and the Secretary of State for Transport.
The Thames Gateway inquiry, into proposals for commercial development and a port at the former Shell Haven site in Essex, opened in February 2003. Again, the Inspectorate is providing the Inspectors, the Secretariat and a web site.

In addition we have provided the Inspector and the Secretariat for the inquiry into the proposed New Forest National Park, which is due to be completed in April 2003.We will do the same for any inquiry that may be called into the proposed South Downs National Park, likely to start later in 2003.

We are continuing to build up a centre of expertise, the Large INquiries Knowledge (LINK) team which will pull together, in a readily accessible form, from the Inspectorate, Government Offices and elsewhere, knowledge and skills relevant to large or unusual inquiries, so that they can be handled speedily, efficiently and effectively.

Transport Work

The Ten Year Transport Plan
As a result of the Ten Year Plan and the Multi-Modal Studies, we expect a significant increase in the number of road and rail schemes coming to public inquiry in the next few years, and we expect to gear the organisation up to deal with them.

With colleagues in the Department for Transport we are discussing
measures to speed up the delivery of the Ten Year Plan. We are negotiating a new Service Agreement with DfT in respect of trunk road schemes, which will include improved forecasting of inquiries and targets to reduce the reporting and decision stages.

In the past, most highway cases were handled by the Lord Chancellor’s Panel of independent Inspectors. In order to deal with the increasing volume and complexity of road schemes, in future the highly valued experienced members of the Panel will be supplemented by specialist Inspectors with the necessary knowledge and training in the relevant field.

For non-highway cases which have a planning component and fall under the definition of major infrastructure projects and large inquiries, we will seek to use the provisions of the 2002 Rules for technical advisers, stricter timetabling and reduced cross-examination where appropriate. We will use teams of Inspectors and Planning Officers and encourage the use of mediation, Joint Data Groups to agree key data in advance of, and during
the inquiry, and round table inquiry sessions where formal crossexamination is inappropriate. Seminars are being considered to disseminate best practice in preparing for, and taking part in, large inquiries, including encouraging promoters to “front-load” scheme preparation and engage with stakeholders and potential objectors at the very earliest stages.We will continue to make the best use of IT by setting up inquiry websites and facilitating the use of electronic documentation and transcripts where the parties are willing to provide them.

Other Work

Rights of Way Orders
We expect to deal with some 360 rights of way cases during the year, with a further 50 appeals under Schedule 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and additional work in Wales.

Access Appeals
We continue to work closely with colleagues from the Department Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on developing procedures to deal with appeals under the access provisions of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. Due to the challenging timetable agreed by Ministers and the Welsh Assembly Government for the implementation of access, we will be using new ways of working that will achieve a high turnaround of cases in mapping appeals. Restriction appeals are likely to be dealt with by traditional inquiries and hearings because of their additional complexity.

Over the period of 2003-2004 to 2005-2006, we will be dealing with growing numbers of access appeals, both against the designation of land for public access (`mapping appeals’) and also where land managers believe there is a need to exclude the public from certain areas of access land (`restriction appeals’).This casework results from the provisions of Part I of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act.The first two regions have produced
900 mapping appeals.

Other Casework
The Inspectorate is periodically required to arrange inquiries into a wide range of other appeals or objections under a variety of legislation. Potentially we may have to deal with up to 200 different categories of work.Our other work is much lower in volume, accounting for approximately 8% of Inspector resources.
Forecast intake of some of this work for 2003-2004 is shown below:

Listed building/conservation area consent appeals	820
Listed building/conservation area consent enforcement notice appeals	180
Environment appeals	300
Compulsory Purchase Orders	85
Planning Obligation (Modification and Discharge) appeals	25
Lawful Development Certificate appeals	200
Applications for Costs	1130

Resources

Our total allocation for the year, 2003-2004, is £45,490k, which is broken down as follows:

Allocation, 2003-2004	£k
Administration costs baseline	40,296
Additional allocation to meet the Planning Portal operation costs	1,694
Capital including Planning Portal	3,500
Total	45,490

Receipts forecast, 2003-2004	£k
Development Plan Inquiries	3,750
Welsh Assembly Government	2,200
Treasury Solicitor	300
Compulsory Purchase Orders	235
Planning Portal	300
Total	6,785