Appeals Guide

Who may appeal?

Appeals may only be made by or on behalf of the person who made the planning application.  There is no "third party" right of appeal and this means that objectors or other parties who may have an interest in the proposal cannot make an appeal if they are unhappy about the decision.

The time limits within which appeals may be made are set out in legislation and the Commission has no power to extend the period for making an appeal.  Time periods for appeals are as follows:

Planning, Listed Building and Advertisement Appeals FOUR months from the date of notification of the Planning Authority decision.  The time limit for appealing in default of a planning decision will also be FOUR months from the date on which a decision should have been given, unless an extended date was agreed in writing between the applicant and the Council.

Enforcement Notice Appeals may be made at any time BEFORE the date on which the notice is to take effect (specified in the notice).

How to appeal

You can appeal online by following the link to our Customer Portal here. The Commission has published a guide for those wishing to submit an appeal online, this is available here Online guide to submitting a case to PACWAC.

Appeals can also be made by post or in person at the Commission’s offices.  

Appeals should be sent to:

Appeal Procedures

Appeals may be determined on the basis of a hearing, written representations with an accompanied site visit or by written representations with a Commissioner’s site visit.  However, if either the Department or the appellant requests a hearing, this procedure must be followed and will take the form of either a Formal or Informal Hearing.

To find out more about procedures on planning and enforcement notice appeals please refer to the Procedural Guides on our Publications page.

Advertising and Appeals

All planning, listed building, enforcement notice and listed building enforcement notice appeals are advertised.  Parties who respond to the advertisement are invited to participate in appeal proceedings and have the same opportunity as the Planning Authority and appellant to make their views known to the Commission.

Fees

Normal Appeals relating to any of the following matters must be accompanied by a fee of £126:

• applications for planning permission, listed building consent or Conservation Area consent
• lawful development certificates
• enforcement notices, listed building enforcement notices and submission notices

Appeals against enforcement notices must be accompanied by a deemed planning application fee, unless certain exemptions apply. Further information is provided in the document that sets out procedures for enforcement notice appeals.

Payments

When you submit an online appeal you can pay the appeal fee (and deemed planning application fee where applicable) by debit card or credit card. You will be redirected to the Worldpay payment page at the appropriate stage. Worldpay is fully compliant with the payment card industry data security standards backed by the major card schemes and financial institutions.

You should have your card details to hand before you begin to make your online appeal.

Otherwise, you will have to submit your appeal in person or by post and pay with either Cheque or Cash.

Supporting documents

You can upload supporting documents electronically to your online appeal.  Each document should not be larger than 50 megabytes with a maximum of 204MB. Each individual document should be uploaded seperately and it is your responsibility to keep your documents to a manageable size.

Completing the appeal

You cannot save a partially completed form, so you should make sure to have all the relevant information to hand before you begin to make your appeal. If you experience any technical difficulties while completing an online form we are happy to offer assistance, please contact:

Email: info@pacni.gov.uk
Telephone: 028 9024 4710

Paper copies of forms are available below: