Planning Permission

Mrs. Lait
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what reasons the Planning Inspectorate requires three copies of each letter of objection to planning applications; and how many such letters the Inspectorate received on average per year over the last five years.

Yvette Cooper
The Planning Inspectorate does not maintain statistics of the volume of letters received from interested persons about appeals but estimates that these number approximately 135,000 per year. The Inspectorate is required by appeal regulations to copy such letters to the appellant and the local planning authority. Nevertheless the Inspectorate recognises that some people will not have easy access to copying or computer facilities and in those cases will happily accept a single letter.