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NIMBY planning decisions set to cost Wealden taxpayers £440,000 By Richard Williams TAXPAYERS in Wealden are set to foot the bill for almost £500,000 in legal costs over poor decisions by its Planning Committees. The figure was revealed in a report presented to the Cabinet at Wealden District Council (WDC) just before Christmas and covers just the second quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year. The report, which has now been seen by the Times, shows that the Council is having to pay £440,000 in legal costs after it turned down planning applications that were later approved on appeal. The figure is made up of £235,000 in legal and consultancy fees related to successful planning appeals by developers, and £145,000 in legal fees
connected to enforcement cases. WDC is now expecting a black hole of £220,000 in its planning department’s budget, forcing it to pump more taxpayers’ money into the department, which had been expecting an £80,000 surplus.
‘The Planning Committee should consider very carefully their decisions’ The news follows a number of high-profile planning decisions last year. In February, the Times reported how WDC turned down an application to convert a dilapidated hut at Bewl Water
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into visitor accommodation, despite a similar application being approved in 2015. The Planning Committee was warned by Council officers at the time that rejecting the plan on those grounds would leave WDC at risk of legal action, but it still went ahead and rejected the proposal. It also follows the rejection of WDC’s Local Plan in 2020 – the document that shows where the Council is planning to build more homes. The Council’s plan was found by the government’s Planning Inspector not to have fulfilled its obligation to meet housebuilding quotas and WDC also failed to communicate with other
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