Planning Appeals Cost Arun District Council Extra £40,000

Thursday, 23 July 2020 06:28

By Karen Dunn - Local Democracy Reporter

Arun District Council has had to find £40,000 to defend three planning appeals after its development control committee went against the advice given by officers.

The appeals – for developments at Middleton Poultry Farm, Inglenook Hotel, Pagham, and land east of Shripney Road – could cost the council thousands more if they are upheld.

One recent appeal left Arun having to fork out £11,500.

During a meeting of the cabinet, Neil Crowther, group head of planning, said the appeals workload was ‘exceptionally high’ and had ‘significantly increased’ since May 2019.

Figures presented to the meeting showed there had been only one appeal between May 2018 and 2019 after six of the 88 applications were refused.

Since May 2019, there have been 14 appeals with 16 out of 81 applications refused.

Mr Crowther said there was a ‘significant risk’ of these three latest appeals being lost.

He added:

“These appeals are all as a result of decisions to refuse planning permission by the development control committee contrary to the officers’ recommendations.

“The department only has limited resources to deal with appeals and in previous years this workload was manageable.

“The current workload cannot satisfactorily be accommodated within this budget.”

The report was described as ‘quietly damning’ by Conservative leader Shaun Gunner – though council leader Dr James Walsh pointed out that development control was a cross-party committee and each application had to be judged on its merits.

The £40,000 is the equivalent of 64p on a Band D council tax bill.

By Karen Dunn, Local Democracy Reporter.

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