Section 215 Notices - Appeals - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
Open group
|
Started - July 2012
|
Last activity - Today
Section 215 Notices - Appeals
I have just been advised the the local Magistrates Court have refused tothe lodgeing of an appeal against a section 215 notice on the grounds that the appeal was not accompanied by a £200 "adminstrative" fee. The notice is now out of time to appeal. Despite being an enforcment officer, I consider this to be contrary to natural justice, as nowhere in legislation does it indicate any fee is required, and the LPA has never been advised as such. I believe it will adversely affect any furture prosecution should it get to that stage. I would be interested in any comments on this. Not surprisingly, it is the planning office which is taking the brunt of venom resulting from this!
This does not appear to be a national policy! I have a Sec 215 appeal at Magistrates Court in October, nothing has been mentioned relating to an admin fee!!
I have had a number of 215 appeals over the years and I have never heard anything about the Courts applying an administration fee, either. Have you spoken to your local magistrates Court about this?
Thanks for your replies. I have asked our legal services to take the matter up with the Magistrates Court. Apparently a similar incident occurred with regard to an appeal against a refusal of a taxi licence application. I have heard that Magistrates Courts are striving to become self funding, so it may be related to this, but it does seem to me totally unreasonable!
One of my colleagues on the NAPE management committee has kindly pointed me in the direction of the OPSI website and Statutory Instrument 2009 1496 - The Magistrates Court Fees (Amendment) Order 2009. Schedule 1 part 2.4 referes to fees for appeals. I have only looked briefly at teh document but there are also charges for entry warrants and I'm told charges also apply when a Council applies to issue a summons!
Yes - it is tucked in there in Section 2.4! It would have been nice if someone told us. Looks like appeals against Section 215 Notices will soon be a thing of the past. It kind of sums up the performance of central government recently. And I thought the DCLG was bad.
We had two s215 appeals in court earlier this year that each attracted £150 fees, unbeknown to us. Although this is not technically a planning issue we should ideally include reference to the possibility of a court fee when issuing s215 notices in the interests of openess and transparency. It does, however, seem entirely counter productive to charge for an appeal, when others are free (apart from enforcement appeals under ground (a). Perhaps PINS should consider taking on s215 appeals? Thanks for the link Michael. Dave