Our most recent planning application success was achieved despite long objection letters from a neighbouring property to the proposal site. This proves that planning decisions are not made on the basis of some kind of local popularity contest.
Planning decisions are made on the basis of planning policies. Occasionally comments from neighbours are relevant to those planning policies, but this is rare. They are more often incoherent, extended rants, fueled by anger or jealousy and so they will be given little or no weight by the council's planning department. That's not to say they can be ignored though.
Even irrelevant or factually incorrect neighbour objections can sometimes have some impact on the consultative deliberations of town or parish councils. That's because part-time town or parish councillors are rarely experts in planning policies. So if you do receive an objection to your planning application, no matter how off-beam it appears, you should rebut it by calmly pointing out the true facts and highlighting why your application does comply with the local planning policy.
If you'd like advice on any of this, feel free to contact us via help@planix.uk or 0845 170 8050 or 07801 356 840.
