| Planning Law | ||
| 1: Planning Law History Current Legislation Interpretation Delegation Appeals 2: Local Plan
Policies 3: Residential Design
Guide 4: Grounds for
Objection 6: The Objection |
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The Town and Country Planning
system in its current form began to operate in 1948. Before this, If a planning application
were refused by a Local Authority, the owner of the land was entitled
to compensation.
Current planning principles result from a series of Acts of the UK Parliament and Statutory Instruments. See 'Current Legislation' for a summary of information available online. A Local Authority is required to produce and develop a Local Plan which includes development policies to comply with these Acts and central government guidelines. These policies should determine how a planning application will be considered. Copies of the policies are available for inspection at Council Offices and more recently on the Internet. Forest of Dean District Council Policies FBE.2 and FBE.3 (Built environment) and FT.4 (transport) are abstracted under 'Local Plan Policies' for reference. In addition, the Council publishes a "Residential Design Guide" as a supplement to the local plan policies. Note that many of these policies may be influenced by Central Government Planning Policy Guidance notes. When a planning application is received by a Council, it is required to publicise the application. In strict legal terms, this can be by posting notices around the site, by letters to neighbours, or both. The plans submitted must be available for inspection at the offices of the Council. Objectors have a period of 21 days to submit comments. Note that this is 21 elapsed days and not 21 working days. Unscrupulous developers may submit plans during holiday periods to shorten the effective time available. The application may be considered at a meeting of the Development Control and Licensing committee, or it may be delegated to the Director of Planning and Leisure services who will nominate a planning officer to be responsible for the application. The decision in respect of delegation is made, in the case of the Forest of Dean District Council, with regard to the Scheme of Delegation and the Rules of the Council. If the application is refused, or if it is granted with conditions that the developer is dissatisfied with, The developer has the right of appeal to the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. Unless the issue is of more than local significance, the appeal is usually delegated to the Planning Inspectorate. If the application is granted, Objectors have no right of appeal. If an objector feels that the Council did not behave in accordance with its own policies or with the law, it is possible to make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman but the Ombudsman is not usually able to revoke or apply conditions to the consent. If the Ombudsman finds maladministration on the part of the Council which results in financial loss, he/she may recommend that a Council should make reparation, which is usually in the form of financial compensation. There are examples of successful appeals to the Ombudsman on the website referred to above. A planning consent may only be revoked by the Secretary of State or as the result of a Judicial Review of the decision by the High Court, although the high cost would prohibit such an action in most cases. It has been argued that such a one-sided appeal system is in contravention of article 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998. For background information, a good reference may be found at: www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2002/rp02-038.pdf
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