Planning refusal - can I appeal on a technicality?

[SusieADavies]

I have been turned down in a planning application to install a window on the grounds that it would overlook house A. However the window would not overlook house A which is on the other side of my house, if it would overlook any house it would overlook house B!

Can I appeal to the Planning Inspector for no other reason than the Local Authority has put the wrong house in its decision notice and that overlooking house A is obviously wrong?

 

[robduncanplanning]

Whilst there is nothing to stop you from appealing, the fact that there may have been an administrative error on the Council's part wont necessarily help you. The Inspector determing the appeal will still look at all the issues including the impact on any other windows. If they consider it to be harmful then they will likely dismiss your appeal. Whether the appeal succeeds really comes down to the specifics of your proposal and how it sits with local and national policy.

Regards

Rob

 

[^woody^]

The planning permission/refusal notice is binding, and the council can not correct 'a mistake' except via a defined legal process

So as it stands, the council may well have wrongly refused the application - which is a basis for appeal.

Any inspector may well look a this differently and grant the appeal, so it is certainly worth doing

I can't understand why this would have been refused as there are several options to prevent any potential overlooking

 

[DevilDamo]

Was that the only reason for refusal? Reason being is that things like that can usually be dealt with via an amended plan before a formal decision is made as it's considered to be minor.

Instead of going down the lengthy and costly appeal route, why not re-submit the application taking advantage of the councils "free go" and then address the overlooking aspects in the new application (e.g. look at providing obscured glazing, have no openings below 1.7m or lose the window completely)?

This is assuming you haven't already used up the free go. Again, it'll be an 8 week decision period, but no fee would be applicable. A lot quicker and cheaper than appealing.