Appeal a decision about consent to display an advertisement
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1. When you can appeal
Your local planning authority makes decisions about displaying an advertisement or sign on your house or building.
You can appeal against a decision about consent to display an advertisement if you disagree with it.
There’s no fee for appealing.
Only the person who made the application can appeal.
Deadline for appealing
If you disagree with a decision, you must appeal within 8 weeks of the date on the decision notice from your local planning authority.
If you’ve been sent a ‘discontinuance notice’, you’ll need to appeal before the date given on the notice.
2. Make an appeal
You must make your appeal online.
If you want to appeal more than one decision you must make a separate appeal for each.
Fees
There’s no fee for appealing.
Documents you need
You’ll need to submit copies of:
- your original application
- the local planning authority’s decision notice
- all plans, drawings and documents you sent to the local planning authority
- any letters or emails between you and the local planning authority
You’ll also need to submit any other documents that directly support your appeal, for example your grounds of appeal.
You can upload these documents when you appeal online.
Preparing your documents
You must have copyright permission to use any drawings or other documents.
You can upload the documents as any of these file types, as long as they’re smaller than 25MB:
- DOC or DOCX
- JPG or JPEG
- PNG
- TIF or TIFF
Make sure all documents are fully readable without any redacted text.
Make an appeal online
Get help using the online service
Contact the Planning Inspectorate’s customer support team if you need help using the online service.
By phone
Planning Inspectorate customer support team
Telephone: 0303 444 5000
Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm (except public holidays)
Find out about call charges
Online
You can also ask a question or make a complaint online.
3. Comment on an appeal
You can comment on some planning appeals about displaying an advertisement or sign.
Find the appeal online to check if you can comment on it. If you can, the deadline for comments is 5 weeks after the start date of the appeal.
If you commented on the original application, the local planning authority (LPA) must tell you within 5 working days if there’s an appeal.
Find an appeal online
You’ll need the 7 digits of the appeal reference number (also known as the ‘case reference number’). You can find this on the letter you received from the LPA telling you about the appeal.
If you did not receive a letter, you can search for the postcode of the land or property that’s being appealed.
4. After you appeal
The Planning Inspectorate will check your appeal to make sure it’s valid. They’ll tell you what happens next and how long your appeal may take.
The Planning Inspectorate will then consider your appeal. Check how long planning appeal decisions normally take.
If anyone behaves unreasonably
You can apply for an ‘award of costs’ if anyone involved in your appeal has cost you money by behaving unreasonably, for example missing deadlines. You can have costs awarded against you too.
You can complain about how the Planning Inspectorate handled your appeal. There’s no time limit for complaints.
5. If you disagree with the appeal decision
You can challenge the decision in the High Court if you think the Planning Inspectorate made a legal mistake.
Get advice from a lawyer if you’re unsure about this.