MORE than £400,000 has been spent by the council fighting planning appeals since 2015, data shows.

A freedom of information request to Cheshire West and Chester Council reveals that officers spent £415,000 fighting 500 appeals from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

Of these appeals, CWAC was successful in seeing 68 per cent dismissed of cases by The Planning Inspectorate of England and Wales, but 28 per cent were allowed.

A council spokesperson said: “It is clear that over the last two years the Council continues to robustly issue decisions with approximately 1.2 per cent of the planning decisions made by the Council being challenged. So far, less than one per cent (0.2 per cent) of all applications in the last two years were successfully challenged.

“The Council, while supporting growth, will not be discouraged from rejecting applications that it feels will ultimately have a negative impact on our borough, residents and businesses.

“Developers or objectors have the right to challenge the Council’s decisions, which are sometimes finely balanced.”

The spokesperson added that in 2020, CWAC received 4,698 applications — of which 35 were appealed.

Of these 35, 14 are still being processed, 17 were dismissed, and 4 involved the council’s decision being overturned — which were all delegated decisions made by officers.

A similar picture can be painted for 2019, when all 22 appeals which resulted in a council decision being overturned were made by officers.

It means that no decisions made by the council’s planning committee were overturned.

Currently, CWAC’s planning committee meets monthly to discuss applications which have been ‘called in’.