Amending drawings as part of ABP appeal

tdo

Hi
I have a question on an appeal to ABP. We have been refused but our architect is pushing us to appeal. He is suggesting that as part of the appeal process he will submit revised drawings dealing with the refusal along with the appeal that address the issues raised in the inspectors report l. I don't see how this can be? I know they treat any application as "de novo", but I would have thought that as such they have to look at the original application only?

Our gut reaction (mostly to keep the neighbours on side) is to submit a new planning application that addresses all the issues and hope for the best, so I don't think we'd do this, but just thought I'd ask to see if there is prior experience here.

mrsWhippy

tdo wrote: »

Hi
I have a question on an appeal to ABP. We have been refused but our architect is pushing us to appeal. He is suggesting that as part of the appeal process he will submit revised drawings dealing with the refusal along with the appeal that address the issues raised in the inspectors report l. I don't see how this can be? I know they treat any application as "de novo", but I would have thought that as such they have to look at the original application only?

Our gut reaction (mostly to keep the neighbours on side) is to submit a new planning application that addresses all the issues and hope for the best, so I don't think we'd do this, but just thought I'd ask to see if there is prior experience here.

What part of the country are you in? Firstly I'd have a look at ABP reports for your area and see how often the refusals are overturned. There is not a great hit rate afaik.

We appealed a refusal last year and it delayed the project 6 months, and then the refusal wasn't overturend in the end. We just had to reapply to the council a second time with new plans and got it a second time.

On what basis was the application rejected? Could you have a meeting with the planners to discuss what would be accepted and come to an agreement before re-submitting? That's what we did, and found the planners (DLRCOCO) to be very accomodating and reasonable, though it's really pot luck who you get. We probably should have done that first time round before going to ABP.

Edited to add: We also included 'mitigating solutions' with our ABP appeal, such as reducing ridge height, reducing dormer footprint. They came looking for revised drawings as an 'additional information request' so yes, they will accept alternate suggestions that might allow them to grant permission with these new conditions.

tdo

Thanks MrWhippy. It was felt that the extension, by being built part on a boundary and with a larger dormer footprint, it was deemed to be overbearing on our neighbour. 2 weeks after the decision, and looking at it witha cool head, it looks like a fair enough decision. I think in your edit you answered my original post - despite the mitigating solutions, you still did not get it, and this would be my fear - we'd be delayed +18 weeks.

We have enough information in the first planners report that - together with another pre-planning meeting - should be enough to get the application through second time out, so that is our decision I think. This will not delay the process v original, unless someone else appeals the second decision. Always a possibility - the neighbours to the rear did not like what we were doing, though the council's report did not cite any of their observations as reasons for the refusal.

Thanks!

mrsWhippy

Best of luck with it tdo.

I'd still plan to have a chat with your planners if you can, prior to the new application being submitted. It's all very stressful isn't it!

tdo

Thanks mrsWhippy, good advice. We'll do our best, the planner we've been assigned generally doesn't anwer the phone, email only.

As for stress...I've two young kids in a rental, no space, boxes everywhere, more money flowing out than in, mortgage application now to be redone. Stressful? :woot: