Can you use CO2 footprint as argument at appeal?

[flanagaj]

Twiddling my thumbs waiting for LPA to decide the fate of our planning application, and already decided it's going to be a no.  Given the proposed bungalow had a larger footprint, and obviously a higher CO2 cost, do those factors get used at appeal, or do emissions only apply to the applicant and not the LPA?

[DevilDamo]

13 minutes ago, flanagaj said:

a higher CO2 cost

Irrelevant for the LPA and/or PI (at present).

[flanagaj]

25 minutes ago, DevilDamo said:

Irrelevant for the LPA and/or PI (at present).

I had a feeling it was "one rule for thee and another for me" 

[Alan Ambrose]

In fact, most sustainability credentials are irrelevant to the LPA unless they have a specific concern/remit e.g. biodiversity or external lighting vs. wildlife. Think you'll get brownie points for your Passivehouse spec? By and large, no.

[joth]

Check the local plan, if your lpa has one. Ours has wording that approvals should by default (i.e. without good reason to do otherwise) favour sustainable development.

 

Not sure it has much legal strength, and perhaps useless by the time it comes to appeals, but it is at least some attempt at capturing the "will of the local people" and should cause some hand wringing  if it goes unheeded

[Alan Ambrose]

Of course, you should get an advantage with sustainable design, but it seems to play little part in the planners' thinking and also they don't have a 'points scoring system' for weighing up a balanced judgement. The planing system behaves as though the issues are black-and-white and everything is 'policy' when, of course, it can't be and isn't. By and large the rules are written for large developers (IMO) and they want to build min building regs designs.