The Government Inspector’s hearing of the appeal against refusal of two planning applications for a petrol station and retail store at the top of Udimore Road will be held on Tuesday September 25. The hearing will be in the Council Chamber, Bexhill Town Hall, starting at 10am and scheduled to last one day.
The understanding from the notification letter and the Inspectorate’s website is that the procedure will be more or less as follows:
The hearing will be chaired by an Inspector from the government’s Planning Inspectorate. It is open to journalists and the wider public as well as to interested parties.
The Inspector will first outline the main issues and ask who wishes to speak. There is no legal right for members of the public to speak, but they are normally allowed to do so.
The appellant (BP or agent) normally speaks first, making the case for overturning refusal of planning permission; then the Local Authority (Rother), defending the decision to refuse. These are followed by others who have asked to speak. The Inspector may ask questions at any point. Further comments or questions from the floor, made through the Inspector,
will probably be allowed. It is also possible to suggest conditions that might be imposed should the appeal succeed, making no assumptions as to whether or not it will succeed.
The appellant, the Council, and possibly other main participants finish the meeting by summing up their cases.
The Inspector will make a site visit, presumably ahead of the meeting.
The decision is published on the Planning Inspectorate’s website.
Image Credits: Planning Application document .
We do not need a Petrol Station at the top of Udimore Road a much better site would be the old Coal Yard now a Car Park in Winchelsea Road. Almost opposite what was once a Terrace of Houses called Western Place.
But it would be better for whom? Presumably not the appellant who will have done its calculations on initial costs, rental and anticipated turnover, etc. I have no stake in this matter as I only know what I have read here, but I shall be interested to learn the outcome of the Appeal.