Can planners ignore the law.

[grahamelliott 0]

If planners approve applications without realising that vehicular access to new properties is only over public footpaths, can that be contested?  The public footpath is along unregistered land so no land owner can give permission. Could current applications be opposed on the same basis once it is pointed out to the council?  Also does anyone have any experience in converting a footpath to a Byeway?

[tom_bradfield 10]

Hi,

Planning permission can be granted without the consent of a landowner - for example, I could apply for permission for a 40-storey tower in my neighbour's garden and get planning permission for it, but unless I got the landowner's permission, I could not actually build the proposal. I am unsure as to how a developer would gain landowner's permission if there is no landowner (I suspect there will be solicitor's getting paid to resolve this!), but they could still gain planning permission nevertheless.

Having said that, a proposal for planning permission should have a viable access that is implementable. If a development cannot legally be accessed by vehicles or pedestrians then that would be something that could be taken into consideration by the local authority. Without knowing the details of the case it is difficult to speculate, but I would be surprised if a developer had got to the stage of submitting an application without securing a way to legally access the site

Tom