Planning appeal - inspector allocation change, and frustrating delays. Has anyone faced anything similar?

[if123]

Hi all,

 

We are currently going through an appeal for a refusal of planning permission for self build dwelling in conservation area. Our appeal was accepted and we had a start date of Feb 2025, and an inspector was allocated and came out for a site inspection 1st April. Things were moving along nicely. However, the inspectorate then emailed a few days later to say that we needed to be allocated a new inspector due to 'unforeseen circumstances' (no further explanation was offered) - how frustrating!

 

It has now been 2 months since the initial site visit, and we still have not had a new inspector allocated to our appeal. We have chased several times, but the response is simply that they are awaiting for an inspector to become available.

 

The delays are very frustrating, and wondering if anyone has had a similar experience with the inspectorate before?

 

Thanks ! 

[Alan Ambrose]

That’s a new one. Maybe they left the inspectorate?

 

There’s lots of info here on BH, case histories, timings etc. I’ve posted my timings before and so have others. Looked at the .gov stats? Bear in mind those are from ‘start’ to decision. ‘Start’ in my experience was 4.5 months after I filed.

[garrymartin]

When I submitted my previous appeal, it took 178 days for it to be deemed valid and to get a start date. For my current appeal, it took 11 days, so at least the time taken to get to the start seems to be much quicker, even if the statistics still show the same sort of determination timings.

 

My previous appeal start date to site inspection was 127 days, and then the decision came 32 days after that. We were never told who the Inspector was and only found out when the appeal was dismissed, and we were sent the paperwork.

 

If you're in a queue waiting for an Inspector to become available, then I assume all appeals that don't have an Inspector allocated will be waiting similar times. Whether you get the jump the queue if you need a reallocation, I doubt anyone will know.

[if123]

thanks both, I was pretty impressed initially with the prompt start date, and site visit.... but sadly now it seems we are in for a long wait 

 

.Gov stats are helpful thank you. I (and our planners) have never come across the inspector being reallocated... My only guess is that they are either poorly or have left their role unexpectedly? 

[Alan Ambrose]

I looked out our numbers: 54 & 52 weeks file-to-decision for full planning; 41 weeks for PD reinstatement.

 

The full planning appeals took 21 & 23 weeks from file-to-'start'; PD reinstatement took 13 weeks.

 

These were filed in 2023 & 2024.