New clause 52 - Planning: Retrospective Applications
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
Public Bill Committees, 23 October 2003, 11:00 am
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
I want to raise two points. First, if 85 per cent. of retrospective planning permission applications are successful, that proves the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight, who
said that far too many of them are automatically granted. Secondly, if a development is clearly against the plan, retrospective planning permission could be applied for and refused, that decision could be appealed against, enforcement action could be taken and that could be appealed against, then a judicial review could take place. Some persistent developers can use the system and through that mechanism prolong for a very long time the period before they have to knock the building down. In some cases, that period is not months but years.