§ Sir David Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many planning appeals were processed 441W through his Department in 1985; and how that number compares with those processed in 1975, 1965 and 1955, respectively.
§ Mr. TraceyThe number of planning appeals under section 36 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971, or the equivalent earlier powers, processed by the Department is best measured by reference to the number determined and the number withdrawn (with the implication that work done on them was abortive). The numbers for the years requested by my hon. Friend are:
Years Appeals determined Appeals withdrawn 1955 n.a. n.a. 1965 8,697 4,357 1975 11,846 4,235 1985 14,639 2,110 n.a. = not available.
§ Sir David Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the average time taken to process a planning appeal in 1985 between the receipt of the inspector's report and the announcement of his determination; and how that time compares with 10, 20, and 30 years before, respectively.
§ Mr. TraceyI take it that my hon. Friend's question relates only to appeals recovered for decision by the Secretary of State, and not to cases decided by inspectors.
Information on the time taken between receipt of the inspector's report and the issue of the decision is not available before 1977 in respect of cases decided following an inquiry, or before 1981 in respect of cases decided on the basis of written representations. The Department calculates the time taken in the form of the median time.
The median time between receipt of the inspector's report and the issue of the decision letter in inquiry cases was 10 weeks in 1977 and 13 weeks in 1985; and between receipt of the site visit report and the issue of the decision letter in written representations cases was nine weeks in 1981 and 11 weeks in 1985. By the third quarter of 1986, these median times had reduced to eight weeks and nine weeks respectively.