Online Planning refusal with no letter or reason given

[abusimbel]

Hello Everyone,

What a great forum and thanks for any and all help!

A couple quick questions...

The LPA reached a decision regarding our plans in April but we never received a letter! We didn't even know it was refused until today when I checked the website.

What should I do?

Give them a call and ask if they sent a letter or ask to have a letter sent?

Are there any implications if they reach a decision but don't bother sending a letter informing me why?

 

[GeoffJ]

how do you know the letter was not lost in the post?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

A letter is irrelevant, it's online for all and sundry to see. You or your agent if you appointed one should have been monitoring the application / liaising with the planners.

 

[tony1851]

My guess is that the OP had someone draw and submit plans on their behalf as agent.

Plans have been refused - agent has been notified but too embarrased to tell the OP, as they have been refused
because they contravene a planning policy for domestic extensions, which said agent should have been aware of.

Am I right?

 

[wessex101]

Pretty much all planning notices I get these days are email attachments. Someone took their eye off the ball though if they didn't realise it had been rejected in April but I would expect the local authority has a statutory duty to notify the applicant or their agent. Otherwise they could sneak out a decision and the applicant might miss the time frame to appeal.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

There are LA's down here with policy 's about two paragraphs long which are as vague as can be, there's too much BS on this site from certain regulars who spout their BS as if every single application can be perfectly predicted every single time 100% of the time.

 

[abusimbel]

Thanks everyone for your responses. The letter could very well have been lost in the post. Which is why I will give them a ring.

The Planning Portal is very clear about coorespondance in regards to a refusal:

'If the authority refuses permission or imposes conditions, it must give written reasons.'

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200126/applications/58/the_decision-making_process/8

We actually checked the website regularily. The LPA put a decision in and post dated the website. In other words they made a decision in April but didn't put the decision and date in the website until June.

 

[^woody^]

There has to be a written notice. The refusal (or approval) is the notice. It's also a public document.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

So when you or your agent were

liaising with the planners

the planners failed to mention it had been decided already?

 

[Notch7]

Planning officers usually have loads of applications to deal with, so in my experience nothing gets looked at until the last few days.

They get the public consultation bit done, then wait for parish and other feedback comments.

It would seem logical to keep in touch with the planning officer and find out the chances of consent, but that doesnt always work, planning officers sometimes prefer to just issue a refusal and then have to deal with another slightly amended application later on.

 

[wessex101]

Planning officers usually have loads of applications to deal with, so in my experience nothing gets looked at until the last few days.

They get the public consultation bit done, then wait for parish and other feedback comments.

It would seem logical to keep in touch with the planning officer and find out the chances of consent, but that doesnt always work, planning officers sometimes prefer to just issue a refusal and then have to deal with another slightly amended application later on.

That is my experience too. Liaising with planning officers is impossible these days, certainly around here anyway, they never seem to answer their own phone or respond to messages and ignore emails. The only time you hear from them is a few days before the decision date if they are going to reject it and then it is just to try and get you to withdraw the application and resubmit with amendments so they can get more time.

 

[abusimbel]

Thanks everyone. I dug a little deeper on the LPA page for our application...looked under images...the last of which was a photocopy of the letter which should have been sent to us.

I don't want to try everyone's patience but could you confirm that when they say 'host' property they are indicating the property for the which the application is made and not ALSO referring to an attached neighbour (in a semi)?

'the effect of the design would damage the character of the host property in the conservation area...'

All of our neighbors within a 100m radius think that it is completely ridiculous that we had our application refused. Not a single individual (including our attached neighbor) raised an issue with the design. In fact we would have better matched the houses on either side of us. All we wanted to do was replace a leaking flat roof with a pitched roof. We have 1/2 low pitch and 1/2 flat roof. But we suggested raising the ridgeline in order to encompass the flat portion of the roof... which is a big no no in a conservation area. Anyway, we will appeal since a similar historical house in the same conservation area was granted permission to both raise the ridgeline and ADD an entire floor (turning it from a 2 level cottage to a 3 level cottage) AND putting in a loft conversion. They raised the ridgeline by at least 3 metres. In fact the ONLY reason we did our application was because of that property getting permission to raise the ridgeline.

anyway, there are worse things that could happen on this glorious Friday afternoon...

 

[Footsoldier888]

Yes you are the 'host'.