Local Review Body

If you are unhappy about a refusal of planning permission or a condition imposed on a consent, when the decision was made by a planning officer under our scheme of delegation, you may request a review by the LRB. You may also request a review if the application has not been determined within the target date. The LRB can only review decisions that are categorised as local developments. Further information on how developments are categorised can be found in our planning advice note ‘How we Process Planning Applications’.

The review must be submitted within three months of the decision or the target determination date. We will display the Notice of Review on our website and at our headquarters and notify all interested parties within 14 working days of the date of receipt of a valid review.

Who is on our Local Review Body?

Our LRB consists of the Chair of our Planning and Access Committee and at least two other members of the Planning & Access Committee. The LRB will only review decisions of planning officers. They cannot review their own Committee decisions.

What will happen?

The LRB will hold an initial meeting and decide if it is possible to determine the request for review based on the evidence in front of them. In some cases, where there are no complex issues, a review decision will be taken at the initial meeting. In other cases, where no immediate determination can be made, the case can be continued by holding one or a combination of the following procedures:

A pre-examination meeting – to consider the manner in which the review is to be handled. This will only be necessary in the more complex cases.
Further written submissions – a straightforward procedure for requiring additional information in writing within 14 days.
Hearings – these will be conducted in a similar manner to the procedure of the Planning & Access Committee. Hearings are not intended to be controversial and will comprise a discussion led by the Chair. The Chair may provide the opportunity for the planning officer, the applicant and other interested parties to make a short presentation followed by crossexamination by the LRB members.
A site inspection – the LRB can inspect the land which is the subject of the review at any time in the process. This may be a site visit unaccompanied or accompanied by the applicant.

In some complex cases a mixture of procedures may be needed, such as a site inspection followed by a hearing.

All the meetings of the LRB will be held in public and the applicant and interested parties will be notified of the meeting.

Decision

The decision can be to vary, uphold or reverse the original decision that the planning officer made. We will issue a decision notice to the applicant which will set out clearly the reasons for the LRB‘s decision. It is expected that decisions will be issued within two months of receipt of reviews. All interested parties will be informed of the review decision and notified of the location where a copy of the decision notice is available for inspection.

Reporting of Review Decisions

All review decisions will be reported to the Planning & Access Committee for information and scrutiny purposes. The decision will also be available on our website.

Further Information and Questions

Further information can be found at:

The Notice of Review application process is available on Scotland’s e-Planning site.

If you have any questions about the Local Review Body then please contact the Local Review Clerk tel. 01389 722017 or email planning.reviews@lochlomond-trossachs.org