PlanningBlog – Brodies LLP

Very informative as usual (link). What caught my eye:

• 45% success rate for all appeals – wow! But the Review speculates that in the current economic climate only the stronger appeals will be submitted.
• success rates vary dramatically between authorities – ignoring those with less than 5 appeals, 9 authorities had more than 50% of appeals upheld against them, the worst being West Dunbartonshire which lost all 6 appeals. East Dumbartonshire, Falkirk, Scottish Borders, and West Lothian all lost more than 70% of their appeal cases. I wonder how many were decisions contrary to recommendation? The star authority is South Lanarkshire, which only lost 2 out of 12 appeals.
• awards of expenses are still difficult to obtain, with only 33 out of 85 claims by appellants being successful 
• Court of Session appeals – of 13 cases disposed of, 6 were conceded by DPEA, 1 reporter’s decision quashed, 3 upheld, and 3 appeals withdrawn - a particularly bad year, but the Review doesn’t tell us why
• planning permission appeals – only 282 received, compared to 777 in 2009-10, which is partly due to the introduction of local review bodies
• types of development - housebuilding appeals are well down, as are hotels. Major retailing is much the same. Wind energy appeals are down almost 50%, but that’s maybe because sub 20MW developments decided under delegated powers are appealed to LRBs.