This note is designed to help a lay person to object effectively to development of which they disapprove. It is rarely cost effective to seek professional help in formulating a planning objection, and so I have endeavoured to give fairly full advice in this note to enable you to make your own objection and to pursue it through the Council’s planning procedures and also, if necessary, through the appeal process.
Finding out about it
When your local Council receives a planning application they are supposed to notify those neighbours who they think may be affected by it, but this depends on the judgement of planning officers and not everyone who thinks they ought to have been informed gets a letter. Nonetheless, you can object to any planning application, whether or not you have personally received a letter informing you of it. One way of finding out about local planning applications is to look on the Council’s website. Not only can you see what planning applications have been received, but you can also view and download the details of those applications and can sometimes see what other people have already said about them. If you do not have access to the internet, copies of applications should be available for inspection in the Council’s Planning Department and are also deposited in some local libraries.
Making an objection