Precedent in Planning

any experience Ive had of this is that the councils play both sides of the game…

ie. they wont accept precedent as an argument and will state ‘the mistakes of the past wont be repeated’
and they WILL state precedent in refusing applications by stating ‘this would served to create a unwanted precedent’…….

also the bord will only deliberate the appeal on its own merits…. you can, if you want, argue that ‘billy across the road’ got permission so why cant i, but more often than not this doesn’t hold any weight…..

however, if a different planner granted permission to someone in almost identical circumstances right beside your site, then you do have an argument….
but your argument is not ‘precedent’ but rather ‘lack of consistency’….. ie, assuming all things to be the same, one planner grants what another refuses, that is a serious lack of consistency……
but also take into account that by a planner granting permission for the first site, that has changed the circumstances of you application….
ie ribbon development may be an issue, congregation of septic tanks may be an issue, traffic turning points may be an issue…….

the fact that you said ‘The planners attitude is that 2 wrongs do not make a right, and that permission should not have been granted to our neighbours’ is interesting, do you have this in writing???

No we do not have the comment regarding the previous grant in writing.
There are no other issues i.e we have a connection to mains water and sewage.
Roads engineer has approved the entrance. We are the last site in a row and would consider the site to be infill.
Unfortunatley we are not the planner.
According to the planner the site will be in a draft plan for residential zoning in Oct/Nov at which time he says he would give us permission for 3 houses. Very frustrating when all we want permission for is one house now.
With no gaurantee of zoning happening we are in a dilemma as to what is the best course of action.

appeal to the bord…….

are you within the 4 week period??

if you are within a servicable area and theres no traffic / sewage issus then its disgraceful what the planner told you about giving u permission for 3 houses there after its zoned…. zoning is no a prerequisate for planning….

Yes we are within the 4 weeks.
We have been refused because we currently own a house and therefore do not meet the local needs requirements.

if you have a possible connection to mains water and mains foul ssewer, then you are not applying for a ‘rural’ dwelling and are not subject to the ‘rural housing guidelines’……

get a professional to put the appeal together for you….

That’s the plan, thanks for the opinion.