Isle of Wight Council planning officers have been praised for their decision- making, after almost 80 per cent of their rulings were upheld by the Planning Inspectorate.
However, one overturned decision cost the council more than £7,000.
Only nine decisions overturned
Latest figures from the council show that of the 42 decisions presided over by the Planning Inspectorate in 2020/21, only nine (21.4 per cent) were overturned by the higher authority.
When the local planning authority makes a decision on planning permission, listed building consent, prior approval of permitted development rights or enforcement, there is a right to appeal against the decision.
Role of Planning Inspectorate
The Planning Inspectorate will decide on applications referred to them on behalf of the Secretary of State.
The planning authority’s performance is monitored against the refusal of planning permission and listed building consent and eight of 32 appeals were allowed, equating to 25 per cent.
£7,000 bill from enforcement appeal
Six out of seven appeals relating to enforcement notices were rejected, but the seventh saw the council’s decision overturned and meant the authority had to pay the landowner’s costs of £7,238.40.
It was in relation to the residential use of land in Ryde that was thought to be unlawful so an enforcement notice was issued.
Three-week delay
The enforcement notice was appealed to the council during which time the residential use had become lawful, but the council advised a lawful development certificate be applied for resulting in a three-week delay.
During those three weeks, the application submitted the appeal to the Planning Inspectorate who considered the delay was ‘unreasonable behaviour’ and awarded the costs against the council.
A report prepared on the statistics, by the planning service, said the council performs strongly at appeals.
Quirk: A lot of officer effort that goes into supporting those appeals
Speaking at the planning committee meeting earlier this week, the former chairman of the IWC Planning Committee, Cllr Chris Quirk said,
“Appeals don’t win themselves and a lot of officer effort that goes into supporting those appeals.
“I thank the officers involved in the process.”
Brodie: Sustainable decisions
Cllr Geoff Brodie said,
“We want to see the decisions that we have made are sustainable with the planning appeals service.”
None of the decisions called before the watchdog were made by the council’s planning committee.
Fuller: IWC strong in comparison to other planning authorities
Cllr Paul Fuller, the cabinet member for planning and housing, said he was pleased to see the council was strong in comparison to other planning authorities but had concerns about the delay of decisions coming from the Planning Inspectorate.
During a different timeframe, between October 2017 to September 2019, the council determined 65 major applications, of these four were appealed and two decisions overturned – equating to 3.1 per cent.
Above the national average
It is above the national average of 2.1 per cent and places the council 271st out of 343 local planning authorities, with the quality of its major development decisions.
Of non-major applications, 2,119 decisions were made in the two-year period and 70 decisions were appealed to the watchdog.
Of those 70, 14 were overturned, equating to 0.7 per cent of decisions and below the national average of 1.1 per cent, ranking the council at 112th of all planning authorities.
Covid backlog
Decisions from the Planning Inspectorate have been delayed, officers say, due to the Covid pandemic.
An inability for inspectors to visit sites and process appeals created a backlog.
The number of appeals lodged with the Planning Inspectorate in 2020/21 was 58, higher than the previous five-year average of 48.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is part of. Read here to find about more about how that scheme works on the Island. Some alterations and additions may have been made by News OnTheWight. Ed
Image: Sven Mieke under CC BY 2.0
