Agenda item

Question:

Given that the Conservatives had a 99% success in winning appeals on planning applications, can you tell me how many have been lost on appeal, and the total cost to the Council of these losses, since May?

Question:

Given that the Conservatives had 99% success in winning appeals on planning applications, can you tell me how many have been lost on appeal, and the total cost to the Council of these losses, since May?

Answer:

There have been 53 appeal decisions in the 8 months since May 2022. Of those appeals, 21 were allowed, one was a split decision and 31 were dismissed.  This compares to a total of 74 appeal decisions in the preceding year 1 May 2021 to 30 April 2022, when 19 were allowed, 3 were split decisions and 52 were dismissed.

Noting that there is a six-month period to lodge an appeal, plus the time taken for the Planning Inspectorate to determine the appeal, many of the appeal decisions since May 2022 were associated with applications which were determined by the Council prior to May 2022.  Of the appeals allowed since May 2022, 4 were committee decisions, of which two were Committee “overturns” – those at Lord Harris Court and St Annes Drive.

For the vast majority of appeals, the appeal procedure remains one of written representation and the cost to the Council is limited to the officer time spent writing appeal statements.

5 appeals have been dealt with by public inquiry since May 2022.  Of those that went to public inquiry, 4 appeals were allowed, and one was dismissed. The total costs associated with defending those appeals was around £127,000.  Since May 2022, there has been one award of costs to the Council (amount under negotiation) and one to an Appellant.  By comparison, none of the appeals determined in the period May 2021 to April 2022 had followed the public inquiry procedure. However, this was due in part to Covid-19 and backlogs at the Planning Inspectorate.  During this period there was 3 awards of costs to the Council and 3 to Appellants.

Supplementary Question:

During the last four years the Conservative success on all housing appeals, that is the one plus houses, not the major developments of ten or more, the Conservatives success was 77.4%, that is over three quarters.  The Liberal Democrat successes are only 43%, that is under half.  Several appeals since May are pending or awaiting a decision.  The lack of a Local Plan is allowing developers to win these appeals, so in the light of this failure to produce a Local Plan, what are you going to do to prevent the building of the proposed additional 835 houses, which are in a threatened area of Green Gap in my ward of Wokingham Without?

Supplementary Answer:

We have an interesting situation because since we took control in May, we have continued the lobbying about the housing numbers for the Borough, and that has been more successful now because of changed circumstances.  We are now at the situation where we could have around 2,500 houses less than what would have been done with the current draft Local Plan.  So, we were left with a situation of either deciding to go with the current draft Local Plan, which many residents had lots of problems with, with lots of parts of the Plan, or to work and go through a set procedure.  We have gone through an assessment of the larger sites.  We have continued going through all the stages of going through a Local Plan over this period, and that is what we are doing.  We are looking to see how we can develop.  We have had a number of planning appeals and we are in the position that we are in.