HC Deb 04 March 1985 vol 74 cc385-6W
Mr. D. E. Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for Wales what is the average amount of time between an appeal to his Department against development control refusal by a local planning authority, or a national park authority, and the determination of that appeal.

Mr. John Stradling Thomas

The information requested is not available in terms of average times. The standard measure is that of the median. In 1984 the median times taken to decide appeals under sections 36 and 53 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 in Wales were as follows:

Appeals decided by:
Secretary of State Inspector
weeks weeks
Inquiries 32* 30
Written representations 48† 21
Note: Median times are derived by ranking all cases in order of times taken and by taking the middle case as being representative of all.
* based on 11 appeals
† based on 10 appeals