Just Planning is an appeal specialist and submits planning appeals all over England and Wales. In recent months, however, we have been especially busy in the London Borough of Croydon, which seems to be refusing more applications and making some questionable decisions.
We won an appeal for a client on Ambleside Gardens who had applied for planning permission for a two-storey side extension to match and mirror similar extensions that had been built at the neighbouring house many years before. The extensions did not strictly comply with the council’s policies, but they were justified by what had been built nearby. In our view, the case officers just didn’t take account of the site context. You can read about that case here.
As Meadvale Road, we acted for a client who had obtained planning permission to build a new house and had said that the roof would be finished in zinc. When they came to build it, they discovered that the zinc cladding would be far too expensive, so they proposed to the council that tiles be used instead.
The case officer refused planning permission on the basis that they preferred the zinc. However, this was not the correct approach to take. Case officers cannot choose what material they, personally, would prefer, they must assess whether the material that is proposed is acceptable. In the appeal decision, the inspector agreed with us that the tiles would match similar tiles on roofs around the area and would cause no harm to the streetscene. You can read out the case in more detail here.
According to government statistics, Croydon has been losing more appeals in recent months. In April 2022, the council was losing only 10% of appeals, but that had risen to 29% in the most recently released data.
If you are in Croydon and have had difficulty getting permission for a new extension or a property development, please contact us for some advice.
