Appealing a planning permission decision

Introduction

If your local authority (planning authority) accepts your application for planning permission it will review the application and any submissions or observations on it and make a decision. When the local authority makes a decision, any participant in the application can appeal the decision to An Bord Pleanála. This appeal must be made within 4 weeks of the date of this decision.

You can only appeal a decision to An Bord Pleanála if you:

• Applied to the planning authority for the proposed development. This is called a first-party appeal.
• Made a written submission or observation to the planning authority about the proposed development at an earlier stage and you have a copy of the acknowledgment document you received from the locall authority. This is called a third-party appeal.

For example, you can appeal:

• All or part of the planning authority's decision about your planning application
• Against a decision to give someone else planning permission. In this case you must have made a written submission or observation to the planning authority on the relevant application.

There are 3 exceptions that allow certain organisations and people to appeal someone else’s planning decision in certain circumstances, even if they have not made submissions or observations at the planning authority stage. These include:

• Specific organisations listed in the Planning and Development Regulations that should have been notified about a planning application as required by law, but were not informed of the application
• Organisations that promote environmental protection, if an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) was not submitted with a planning application when it had to have one
• Anyone who has an interest in the land which borders the site where planning permission has been granted. In this situation you apply to the Board for leave to appeal the decision. You must meet strict conditions to be granted leave to appeal by the Board. These conditions are that you did not make a submission on an application; and the permission conditions attached to a grant on that application now impact land which you have an interest in, and the land is beside the proposed development site.

If the Board grants you ‘leave to appeal’, you must make your appeal within two weeks of receiving notification of this. More details on making a leave to appeal application is available on pleanala.ie.

If a valid appeal has already been made by either the applicant or a third party, any other person can become an "observer" and make observations on the appeal.

Applicants, appellants or the planning authority involved in the appeal can request an oral hearing on a planning appeal. An oral hearing is a public meeting to allow relevant issues in a case to be discussed and examined. An Bord Pleanála will normally only grant an oral hearing if the case is particularly complex or significant national or local issues are involved.

An Bord Pleanála aims to make a decision within 18 weeks. However, if this is not possible, it may inform all the parties of this.

In general, An Bord Pleanála will either:

• Grant planning permission
• Grant planning permission with conditions, or amended conditions, or
• Refuse planning permission.

Once a decision is reached in a planning appeal, the Board will not discuss the pros and cons of the decision. All decisions are final and can only be challenged by judicial review in the High Court on a point of law. In these situations, the High Court will judge if the Board followed due process in reaching its decision, but will not look at the planning merits of an appeal.