Quarter of appeals for refused planning permits upheld since 2013

A quarter of planning permits which were refused by the Planning Authority since 2013, and had been appealed before the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal, had their appeal upheld, infrastructure minister Ian Borg has said.

Borg was replying to a parliamentary question by Nationalist Party MP Chris Said on how many planning applications – which the Planning Authority had refused, and which had then been appealed – were ultimately approved by the Tribunal, year by year since 2013.

Out of a total of 997 appeals on refused applications since 8 March 2013, the Tribunal had upheld 254 cases, and subsequently changed the Authority’s original decision and ordered it to issue a permit for them.

The year which saw the most appeals being upheld was 2013, with 54 out of 154 appeals resulting in the issuance of a permit. In contrast, out of 306 appeals in 2017, only 14 were upheld.