When a decision has been made on a planning application, the decision letter will advise if the planning application has been either:
- approved
- approved subject to conditions or
- refused
If you are not happy with the decision, you have the right to appeal or ask for a review.
The circumstances in which you can appeal are:
- If your application has been refused
- If your application has been approved but has conditions placed on it that you think are unacceptable
- If a decision has not been made within 2 months of validation of the application (or 4 months if the development requires an environmental impact assessment)
There are 2 types of appeal, and your decision letter will tell you which type of appeal is relevant to your application - these are appeals to the Local Review Body, and appeals to Scottish Government Ministers
Local Review Body
If the decision about your planning application has been made by planning officers under delegated powers given to them by the Council, an appeal would normally be dealt with by the Local Review Body, which is a council committee set up to deal with planning appeals. If you are making an appeal to the Local Review Body, you will need to submit an appeal form within 3 months of the date of decision on the application.
More information on making an appeal to the Local Review Body
Appeals to the Scottish Government
Major planning applications, and any others not covered by our scheme of delegation for local developments, are decided by elected members of the planning authority. In these cases, appeals should be submitted to the Scottish Ministers, through the Scottish Government's Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA).
There is one exception: A local review case can subsequently be appealed to Scottish Ministers where:
- an applicant seeks a local review because the planning authority official had not decided the planning application within two months; and
- the local review body then also fail to make a decision within a further three months.