An Bord Pleanala - slow decision times

standeman

We had our planning permission granted but the neighbours have appealed the decision. Fair enough, that is their right.

A decision is apparently due to be made by An Bord Pleanála in November (18 weeks after the appeal was submitted). However, I have been following recent cases and it seems that no appeals are currently being decided within the 18 week statutory objective. The closest I have seen is 19.5 weeks. The majority are decided anywhere from 6-10 months.

An Bord Pleanála are therefore failing 100% in keeping to their statutory objective timeframe. Is this down to incompetence? Are they underfunded/understaffed?

If local councils can decide a planning case within an 8 week timeframe, each and every time, why can’t An Bord Pleanála do it within 18 weeks?

I do not mind going through the planning processes if cases are dealt with efficiently. What is not acceptable is being at the mercy of a body that seems so incapable of performing their duties in a timely manner. The upshot, for the appeal parties concerned, is additional undue stress and inconvenience. Are An Bord Pleanála completely unaccountable? It would seem so. How else could they perform so badly and get away with it?

I believe An Bord Pleanála should be subjected to a full audit to try and discover the reasons for their failings. In the interim, they should at least provide an updated timeframe on their website to allow all concerned to be kept abreast of the likely delay in deciding appeals.

muffler

standeman wrote: »

it seems that no appeals are currently being decided within the 18 week statutory objective.

An Bord Pleanála are therefore failing 100% in keeping to their statutory objective timeframe.

There is no statutory time frame - it is a target date only.

standeman

muffler wrote: »

There is no statutory time frame - it is a target date only.

Taken from the An Bord Pleanála website: “The Board's statutory objective is to dispose of appeals within 18 weeks”.

Your are right though, I could have said that “An Bord Pleanála are failing 100% in keeping to their target date”. Whichever way you put it, they are still failing 100% to meet their 18 week target/statutory objective.

muffler

standeman wrote: »

Taken from the An Bord Pleanála website: “The Board's statutory objective is to dispose of appeals within 18 weeks”.

Its probably better to quote the entire paragraph which reads:

The Board's statutory objective is to dispose of appeals within 18 weeks. However, where the Board does not consider it possible or appropriate to reach a decision within 18 weeks (e.g. because of delays arising from the holding of an oral hearing), it will inform the parties of the reasons for this and must say when it intends to make the decision.

standeman

standeman wrote:

Taken from the An Bord Pleanála website: “The Board's statutory objective is to dispose of appeals within 18 weeks”.

muffler wrote: »

Its probably better to quote the entire paragraph which reads:

The Board's statutory objective is to dispose of appeals within 18 weeks. However, where the Board does not consider it possible or appropriate to reach a decision within 18 weeks (e.g. because of delays arising from the holding of an oral hearing), it will inform the parties of the reasons for this and must say when it intends to make the decision.

Not sure that quoting the entire paragraph serves any useful purpose. It certainly doesn’t, as far as I can understand, give An Bord Pleanála an acceptable excuse not to decide any cases within the 18 week statutory objective. I presume the extra sentence that you quoted was only added by An Bord Pleanála to let concerned parties know that delays may occur to a planning appeal decision if, for example, oral hearings are required. I also presume it wasn’t intended to give them carte blanche not to meet the statutory objective.

However, as you felt the extra sentence was somehow relevant maybe the question should be asked - why have An Bord Pleanála not considered it possible or appropriate to decide any appeals within the 18 week statutory objective?

muffler

I think this topic needs a thread of its own. I will move these posts to it.

muffler

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archtech

Its got to the stage where we tell clients that you can expect a decision within 12 months of an appeal been lodged with the Board. If its decided within 6 months and you're doing well. The most frustrating thing is to be given a second date and then to have that put back again and again and..... as happened in a number of occasions with us in the past few months.

muffler

archtech wrote: »

The most frustrating thing is to be given a second date and then to have that put back again and again and..... as happened in a number of occasions with us in the past few months.

Very frustrating and annoying. I have no idea why this happens. Are they understaffed, underfunded or what?

standeman

archtech wrote: »

Its got to the stage where we tell clients that you can expect a decision within 12 months of an appeal been lodged with the Board. If its decided within 6 months and you're doing well. The most frustrating thing is to be given a second date and then to have that put back again and again and..... as happened in a number of occasions with us in the past few months.

Any thoughts/comments on why An Bord Pleanála is taking so long to make decisions? Is it lack of resources, are they being run inefficiently, or is it just that they are unaccountable and therefore have no desire/need to meet their statutory objective?

How have they been allowed to get away with this failure to deliver for so long? The situation seems to be getting worse in terms of delays. The following are relevant snippets from the An Bord Pleanála Annual Report 2006 (here is a link for completeness):

“Despite a 10% increase in cases determined, the percentage of cases being decided within the 18 week statutory time objective has fallen further from 53% in 2006 to 49% in 2007.”

“The Board is taking all possible measures to deal with the backlog and to get back as soon as possible to achieving its overall strategic objective to dispose of 90% of cases within 18 weeks. These include putting in place additional resources and considering other options to increase output. The Board regrets the delays that are occurring.”

Oh really! Let’s see how successful these measures have been - of the 100 or so appeal cases that were decided last week by An Bord Pleanála, the quickest decision was made in 25 weeks i.e. nearly 6 months. Some were coming in at a whopping 11 months. In the last couple of months at least, no appeal cases have been decided in 18 weeks. So it seems An Bord Pleanála are now down from 49% of cases decided in 18 weeks in 2007 (although I am sceptical at even this figure) to 0% now. This is shocking.

muffler

This topic could be debated here till the cows come home and it wont change a thing. Maybe a letter to the Minister for the Environment expressing our dissatisfaction with the time delays could possibly help or even representations could be made to the local TDs.