Who can appeal against planning decisions?
Anyone that has been refused planning or building permission or disagrees with a condition that has been attached to a planning or building permission or anyone that owns or occupies a building or land where a building, place or tree has been listed can appeal against a decision.
This right to appeal also applies to anyone that has made a written statement about a neighbour's application where planning permission has been granted and reside or have an interest in land that is within 50m of the application site.
An appeal against the refusal to grant or vary planning permission is £1,681 for a major development and £525.30 for a minor development. An appeal against the grant of planning permission (otherwise known as a 'third-party appeal') is £525.30.
Where do you submit an appeal?
An 'Appeal of a Decision Form' must be completed. This can be downloaded from the planning section of the States of Jersey website and submitted to the Judicial Greffe with the applicable fee (as set out below). In the first instance, the appellant must provide a brief outline of why they disagree with the decision, identifying all relevant issues.
Appellants have 28 days from the date of the decision to appeal against it. The date of the decision can be found on the decision notice. The time limit is strictly applied and only in the most exceptional cases can an extension of time be granted.
How does the appeal process work and how long will an appeal take?
Once an appeal is accepted, an independent inspector will be assigned to the case. Some appeals can be considered based on written statements but the majority involve a hearing which will be chaired by an inspector.
Once the appeal is accepted, appellants have 28 days to submit their statement of case giving their full argument for appealing, including all supporting evidence and documentation. If the appeal is not accepted, the Judicial Greffe will explain why – for example, this may be due to a late submission. All involved parties will then receive each other's cases from the Judicial Greffe and will have 14 days to respond. At this point, appellants cannot raise any new issues that were not raised in their initial statement.
The inspector will consider the appeal and make a recommendation to the Minister for the Environment John Young. The minster makes the final decision and can choose to follow or depart from the recommendation, but a reasoned explanation must be provided where the inspector's advice is not followed. Once the minister decides on an appeal, the Judicial Greffe will inform all parties of the outcome.
The Judicial Greffe states that decisions on appeal can be expected around 10 weeks from the date on which the appeal was accepted; however, it should be noted that this timeframe is dependent on the number of other appeals at the time.
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