Planning permission with onerous planning conditions?

Salmon Planning wins appeal in Somerset challenging a raft of unjustified conditions and for Council to pay the clients' costs.

In the third case of our series of case studies on recent appeal wins, we focus on another appeal success in south Somerset to build and operate a new equestrian centre.

Whilst our client had been granted planning permission to construct a new equestrian centre, the Council had imposed such a raft of onerous planning conditions with the permission that the project had been rendered almost unviable. In our professional view, the Council's conditions were completely unjustified and would have been costly and complex to comply with.

Another appeal success with planning conditions repealed and costs awarded.

Having reviewed the conditions, our client instructed us to appeal against seven of the seventeen conditions imposed by the Council. We provided robust evidence as to why the wording of the conditions did not meet the six ‘tests’ as set out in planning policy which related to the planning conditions imposed.

The Planning Inspector agreed with us on all counts.

The total number of conditions was reduced to fourteen with the Inspector agreeing to modify the wording of the other conditions. These changes made the building and operating of the equestrian centre as originally intended, viable.

Furthermore, in this case we advised the client that the Council had got the planning conditions so wrong that we ought to apply for their appeal costs to be paid by the Council. Costs are only awarded in an appeal where it can be shown that the Council has behaved unreasonably and thereby caused an applicant to incur wasted expense in undertaking the appeal process.

We are delighted to report that the Planning Inspector again agreed with our claim and instructed the Council to pay the client’s appeal costs in relation to the unjustified conditions that had been imposed.

This case is a further example of the benefits of employing a chartered planning consultant to fight your corner.

If you would like to discuss any issues you may have with the imposition of planning conditions by your local Council please do not hesitate to contact our planning consultants at Salmon Planning Company.

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