Most people open a planning decision notice and see one word: REFUSED. Everything underneath it looks formal and difficult, so it is tempting to put the letter down and assume that is the end of the application.
It may not be. The reasons underneath the decision are what matter. They tell you what the council believes is wrong with your proposal and give you the starting point for deciding whether to appeal, change the scheme or apply again.
When I worked as a council planning officer, I often spoke to homeowners who had taken the refusal as final without looking closely at the reasons. Once we went through them, the position was sometimes rather different from what they had assumed.
Find out how long you have
Check the date of the decision before you do anything else.
Householder and minor-commercial refusals normally have a 12-week appeal period. Most other planning appeals have six months, although the period can be much shorter where enforcement action is involved. The clock runs from the date on the decision notice, not from the day you read it or manage to speak to the case officer.
Our guide to planning appeal deadlines explains the different time limits. Do not rely on discussions with the council to stop the clock, because they do not extend your appeal period.
Check that the notice describes the right application
Read the application number, address and description of development. Make sure they match what you submitted.
Councils prepare decision notices from standard templates and mistakes occasionally get through. If the address is wrong, the description has changed or something else does not look right, ask the council to confirm the position in writing.
Do not assume that an error automatically invalidates the decision or gives you longer to appeal. Raise it promptly and continue to work to the original deadline unless you receive reliable confirmation otherwise.
Work through each reason for refusal
The council is required to explain its reasons for refusing permission and identify the planning policies relevant to its decision.
Some notices contain a single reason. Others contain several. Length is not necessarily a measure of how strong the council’s case is. What matters is whether each reason identifies a genuine planning harm and whether the evidence supports it.
A typical reason might read:
The proposed rear extension, because of its depth, height and position close to the shared boundary, would appear overbearing and cause an unacceptable loss of outlook to the occupiers of No. 14, contrary to Policy H4 of the Local Plan.
That rather dense sentence contains several separate points. The council is concerned about the effect on No. 14. The alleged harm is an overbearing appearance and loss of outlook. It believes that harm arises from the height and depth of the extension and its position near the boundary. Policy H4 is the policy it says supports the refusal.
You can now look for the council’s evidence. How far is the extension from the neighbour’s window? What can currently be seen from it? Does the council have adopted guidance on acceptable distances or extension depths? Has the officer applied that guidance correctly?
Planning expressions such as “overbearing”, “cramped” and “out of keeping” are common, but they are not mathematical tests. They describe a planning judgement. An inspector can visit the site, look at the same plans and reach a different conclusion.
That does not mean every judgement-based refusal will be overturned. It means you need to understand how the council reached its judgement before deciding whether it is worth challenging. Our guides to refusals involving neighbouring amenity and poor design explain two of the most common examples.
Read the officer’s report alongside the notice
The decision notice gives you the conclusion. The planning officer’s report should explain how the council reached it.
Find the part of the report dealing with each reason for refusal. Look at whether the officer refers to measurements, photographs, adopted guidance, consultation responses or particular features of the site. A conclusion supported by a careful assessment is harder to dislodge than one which is asserted in a sentence or two without much explanation.
The report will also tell you whether the application was decided by officers under delegated authority or by the planning committee.
Where a committee has refused an application against the officer’s recommendation, read the committee minutes as well. The officer’s recommendation of approval does not guarantee that an appeal will succeed, but it gives you a professional assessment supporting the development which is already part of the application record. The committee should have explained why it reached a different view.
A reason may occasionally appear on the decision notice even though it received little attention while the application was being considered. Do not dismiss it simply because it is new. Check whether it is supported in the officer’s report or by a consultation response. If the reasoning is missing or poorly explained, that may be relevant to an appeal.
Can the problem be answered using the existing application?
This has become particularly important under the Part 1 appeal procedure.
For most appeals arising from applications submitted on or after 1 April 2026, the inspector will ordinarily decide the case using the material that was already before the council. This includes the plans and documents submitted with the application, representations from neighbours, the officer’s report, committee minutes and the decision notice. The appeal form allows you to explain why you disagree with the decision, but it is not an opportunity to rebuild an incomplete application with new reports or a redesigned scheme. The Planning Inspectorate’s current procedural guide explains the restrictions.
Suppose the council refused an application because no flood-risk assessment was provided. If one was required and the application genuinely needed it, commissioning the report after the refusal will not usually repair the case at a Part 1 appeal. A new application with the missing information is likely to be more sensible.
The position may be different where the council had all the plans, photographs and information it needed but reached a conclusion you believe was wrong. An inspector can reconsider that judgement using the existing application material.
This is one of the most important questions when choosing whether to appeal or reapply after a planning refusal. If the proposal needs to change or important evidence was omitted, look seriously at another application. If the necessary material is already there and the dispute is about the conclusion drawn from it, an appeal may be the better route.
Do not confuse an informative with a reason for refusal
After the reasons, many decision notices include several paragraphs called informatives. These are standard notes rather than additional reasons for refusing permission.
They may remind you that planning permission is separate from building regulations, refer to the Community Infrastructure Levy or explain your right of appeal. An informative does not carry legal weight in the way that a planning condition or legal agreement does.
You may also see standard wording saying that the council acted in a “positive and proactive” manner. Applicants understandably find that irritating when they feel the council did very little to help them, but it does not determine whether the development should receive planning permission.
Poor conduct can sometimes be relevant to a separate application for appeal costs. It will not normally answer the planning reasons for refusal, so do not allow it to take over your appeal case.
What to do next
Put the decision notice beside the officer’s report and find the report’s assessment of every reason for refusal. Consider whether the council has identified a genuine problem, whether its conclusion is supported by the plans and site circumstances, and whether everything needed to challenge it is already in the application file.
You can ask the case officer to explain wording you do not understand. That conversation can be useful, but keep the appeal deadline in mind while you wait for a response.
If you would like an independent view, send My Planning Appeal your decision notice and planning application reference. We will examine the reasons and the material already submitted, then tell you honestly whether an appeal appears worthwhile or whether a revised application would make more sense.
My Planning Appeal handles suitable Part 1 appeals for a fixed fee of £399. We win more than half of the appeals we agree to take on.