Garden grab appeal

[jeds]

Might be interesting to some of you.

I submitted a planning app some time ago for a house in a garden. It was refused so we appealed.

Shortly after the appeal app the new Government issued its new PPS3 statement which revoked the garden grab policy.

The inspectorate wrote to say that the new PPS3 was relevant and had to be considered even though the original application and the appeal application was well before the new statement was released.

Anyways, I wrote and said I thought the application was still valid and the appeal should continue.

Today I got a positive result. The appeal was allowed.

So gardens are still fair game.

 

[Richard C]

Good result then ; I’m interested to see how seriously the policy is going to affect new submissions!

 

[^woody^]

The inspectorate was wrong on the relevance of subsequent policy guidance, as any appeal is an appeal on the merits of the decision, reasoning and the policy in force (ie relevant) at the time when the refusal decision was made.

Subsequent updated or altered guidance can not be taken into account as it was not available at the time when the decision was made, and so not part of the decision process.

The inspectorate would lose any challenge if they applied new policy guidance to their assessment of an appeal

 

[DevilDamo]

Yeh we had some information emailed internally on the new policy

 

[jeds]

Only thing I'd say is that it took a very long time. The site visit took place on 7th July (unaccompanied) and I got the result today. The whole appeal was 7 months when I've had others back in between in 4 months. I telephoned the case officer two weeks ago and he was a bit baffled as well. I reckoned at the time that they might have been seeking legal opinion.

The only mention of the PPS3 policy change in the report was that he wrote to both parties but the local authority did not respond, (thanks for that) which he took to mean they did not wish to raise an objection.

Anyway, Friday night curry and bottle of shampoo is on the client.