§ 22. Mr. A. J. Irvineasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government the total number of planning appeals lodged with his Department against refusal of planning permission by local planning authorities during the year 1953; and the numbers of such appeals allowed, dismissed and withdrawn, respectively.
§ Mr. H. MacmillanThere were 4,456 appeals lodged with my Department during 1953. During the same period 1,013 were allowed, 1,206 dismissed, and 1,341 withdrawn or otherwise settled.
§ Mr. IrvineI am much obliged for that information. Is it not a fact that these figures show a substantially increased number of appeals, and is that not partly attributable to the failure of local planning authorities to set out in clear terms the reasons for their decisions, as I think was pointed out by the Minister in his Circular No. 61 last year? Will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind in this connection the importance of expressing in clear and comprehensible terms decisions from planning appeals issued and made by his own Ministry?
§ Mr. MacmillanI will consider that suggestion, but I think the hon. Gentleman, who has great knowledge of this subject, will agree that laying down principles is one thing, while the difficulty arises in their precise application to an enormous number of individual cases. Although the number of appeals is rising, I think that is mainly because we are getting on more rapidly with the planning decisions, and the whole thing is now taking shape as it was meant to do when it was first started.