Following on from the previous post on ‘Withdrawing your application’ this post takes the next ultimate step of appealing the decision to An Bord Pleanála.

The ‘Bord’ has a great guide on it’s website about the Planning Appeal Process.

We have two appeals currently lodged awaiting decision and it’ll be interesting to see how they pan out. A few colleagues have intimated that the Bord rarely goes against the Local Authority so it will be interesting to see the conclusions of both. I’ll keep you posted.

A couple of observations regarding the appeal process are:

• It’s very straightforward, the documents we have submitted are simple and clear without being overly verbose

• It’s fairly red-tape free; there are none of the problems of submitting 6 copies, red lines, blue lines, yellow site notices etc… that are all too familiar in the planning process. That being said there are still rules you need to abide by that are detailed in the An Bord Pleanàla Planning Appeal Guide

• The three characteristics of the Planning Appeal process promoted by An Bord Pleanàla are that:

– The system is independent,

– the system is designed to be fair and impartial, and

– the system is open.

The Environment Minister Alan Kelly has recently announced a review of An Bord Pleanála, aimed at ensuring that the planning body is adequately supported to meet future challenges. You can read more details on this in THIS ARTICLE in the Irish Examiner