COVID 19: Planning Update

Since leaving the office last Tuesday, the Brooks Leney team have settled into our new ‘home offices.’  We are all working hard to keep on top of the unfolding situation to ensure we continue to give you the best possible advice and provide some reassurance during all this uncertainty.

We can now confirm that Local Authority Planners have been included on the Government’s list of ‘key workers’.  This means planning departments should be functioning and ready to process applications.  However, individual Councils have still been given the discretion to re-allocate planning professionals to other roles during the outbreak as necessary.  It is therefore likely there will be delays in decision making and we will be keeping in close touch with Council planning departments to keep you up to date with all new developments.

There is still some confusion regarding whether planning committees will meet.  This may result in disruption to the issuing of some decisions.  Rest assured we will be contacting all clients likely to be affected by this and are keeping a close eye on how individual Councils are dealing with this issue.

The Planning Inspectorate have postponed all Local Plan, appeal and nationally significant infrastructure project hearings and inquiries.  However, this does not affect appeals made by written representations which are progressing as normal.  Most planning appeals can be made in this way so please do contact us if you have recently received a refusal and would like advice on an appeal. Our planning team are contactable on their mobiles – numbers can be found here