Streamlining comment submission for planning and enforcement appeals
The Planning Inspectorate is streamlining how it collects comments on appeals, bringing benefits to residents, Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) and other interested parties.
From 1 April 2024, people wanting to share their views on planning and enforcement appeals must submit their comments through the Appeals Casework Portal (ACP). Comments will no longer be accepted by email.
For many years we have worked with LPAs to encourage people to comment via the web-based ACP. However, we are still receiving many comments by email.
This is resulting in increased administration and, in common with local councils, we are keen to streamline our processes and focus our resources on activities that improve our services.
ACP provides several benefits to the interested party, the Planning Inspectorate and to LPAs including:
- Certainty to the interested party that their comments have been received.
- Ensuring personal data, such as email addresses, are not included on the response which reduces redaction requirements for local authorities when publishing public comments on their website.
- Simplifying our back-office processes, making the task of handling representations more efficient and less likely comments are missed.
From 1 April interested parties who try to make a comment via email will be directed to the ACP. The email will not be seen by the Inspector handling the appeal. We will continue to make provision for those with genuine accessibility needs.
We have written to all LPAs ( ) to ask for their help in ensuring people in their communities commenting on planning and enforcement appeals are using the correct route to share their views with the Inspector.