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Q&As
How easy is it to appeal my extension project’s planning conditions?
I’m looking to add a modern extension to the front of my 1970s home on a busy urban road. I have just received planning consent, which includes several planning conditions that I’d like to appeal. How many can I realistically challenge before the planning committee reconsiders the entire application? Or is it easier to reconsider the design and apply for a new consent?
One Answer
It is very frustrating to receive a grant of planning permission only to realise it is subject to a series of objectionable conditions. If you’re not willing to accept them, your approval becomes almost worthless. As you say, you have a right of appeal against planning conditions. However, this is, technically, an appeal against the grant of planning permission subject to those conditions. You cannot appeal them in isolation.
In practice, an appeal inspector will usually focus on the specific conditions being challenged, but they have the power to reopen the decision as a whole. This means they could amend the conditions, impose new ones or remove the permission entirely. In other words, you could end up with more onerous conditions than you started with or even lose the permission altogether.
Conditions dealing with relatively peripheral matters are generally less risky to challenge. For example, if permission has been granted for an extension but a condition prevents a side window due to concerns about overlooking, an inspector is unlikely to revisit whether the extension itself is acceptable. The focus would normally be on whether that particular window would cause harm.
Should you have concerns about the risk of losing your permission, you can make a separate application to vary or remove the conditions you do not like. This is known as a section 73 application. Because it is separate, the original permission remains intact.
If permission has been granted subject to a large number of conditions that significantly affect what you want to build, it may indicate wider problems with the overall proposal. In those circumstances, trying to pick off individual conditions may not be the most effective approach. It might be better to step back, seek pre-application advice or submit a fresh application that directly addresses the issues behind the conditions. In many cases, a new application is quicker, cheaper and more predictable than an appeal. If that revised application is refused, the right of appeal remains available.