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Object to a Planning Application

Members of the public are entitled to see the environmental impacts of planning application and object to their approval.

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Planning Toolkit

River Action has put together this page to help you understand the planning system and respond effectively to planning applications that may adversely impact your local environment. The following page outlines the process and key issues, and sets out the implications of recent cases (including a number brought by River Action) that are particularly relevant for objections to planning applications for developments that threaten our rivers.

This guide is designed to support you to object to developments that could adversely affect rivers, however it will be especially relevant for communities objecting to intensive livestock developments such as factory farms. Many of the legal cases and template wording included in this guide focus on these types of developments.

The planning system in England and Wales

The town and country planning system manages the use and development of land and buildings to achieve sustainable development – balancing economic, social, and environmental needs. At a very high level, the objective of sustainable development can be summarised as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [Resolution 42/187 of the United Nations General Assembly]. As such, the planning system aims to ensure the right development happens in the right place at the right time, benefiting communities and the economy, while also protecting valuable natural and historic environments.

Most significant development needs planning permission, usually granted by local councils, to go ahead. The first stage of this usually involves the person or organisation that wants to carry out the development submitting a planning application.

The planning system aims to ensure that all views on new development are taken into account. Members of the public are entitled to see and comment on all planning applications. There is an opportunity to make your views known in what is called the development control process.

Did you know…

In the year ending March 2025, 335,800 planning applications were received in England alone

The planning permission process

The majority of decisions are taken by local district or borough councils. However, where a unitary authority is in place, it will act as the local planning authority. At the time of writing in 2025, many district and borough councils are currently being combined into regional unitary authorities.

When a local planning authority receives a planning application, it is required by law to publicise it. Notice of major development applications must be published in a local newspaper and the planning authority must either post a notice on the site itself or notify the occupiers and owners of adjoining properties.

In any event, councils must keep a public register of all planning applications, which contains a paper copy of planning applications, along with any maps, plans and supporting documents. All applications, plans and supporting documents must also be available online.

The council must invite the public and any organisations whose interests may be affected by a proposed development (called ‘statutory consultees’) to comment on a planning application. Issues concerning waste, water or air pollution are referred to the Environment Agency. Natural England assesses applications that could affect wildlife.

Members of the public must comment on a planning application within 21 days of the date of the posting of a site notice or the date notice is served on neighbours, or within 14 days from when an advert appears in a local newspaper. Parish and town councils have 21 days from the date they were notified to make an official comment.

The council should usually make a decision within eight weeks. If it takes longer, the applicant can appeal to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The council will either approve the application (sometimes with conditions or obligations) or refuse it. Either way, the council must always give reasons for its decision.

Responding to the Planning Application

Follow these steps to effectively object to a planning application using our template objection letter.

Other useful resources include Sustain’s Activist Toolkit on Factory Farms and CPRE’s guide on responding to planning applications.

1. Examine the Application

Planning applications and accompanying documents should describe the proposed development’s size and location, how it will function, and its relationship with the immediate surroundings. Applicants are required by law to provide a certain amount of information along with a planning application. If a planning application will involve surface or ground water drainage into a watercourse, then the application should include information on that. Any new housing development would involve surface water drainage. Most agricultural developments would also involve surface or ground water drainage.

If you think that an application is likely to involve any type of drainage into a watercourse but no information about this is provided in the application documents, then you should make that point in your objection.

If you decide to visit the site, remember that you could be trespassing if you go on the site without permission. Stick to public rights-of-way, or get permission from the landowner before visiting.

2. Does it comply with legislation?

To be accepted, planning applications may have to comply with environmental, national, or local legislation and plans. Read these PDFs to learn more about each:

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) [PDF]

Environmental Permits [PDF]

Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) [PDF]

Local Development Plan (LDP) [PDF]

National Planning Policy [PDF]

3. Register your objection to a planning application

If you’re concerned about the impacts of a planning application on a local river or other watercourse, you should make your comments in writing to the planning authority before the appropriate deadline. You must do this if you want your comments on a planning application to be properly considered.

There are several things that could strengthen your letter of objection:

Refer to the impacts which the proposed development will have on the river or watercourse – you could talk about your own experiences of the current state of the river or watercourse, and why the development will make that worse. You can also check whether the river or watercourse is part of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Area (SPA), Ramsar site (a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands), or SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). If it is, then you should make that clear in your letter. The River Rescue Toolkit is there to give you advice about how to find out about your river and how a development might affect it.

Refer to the development plan – list the development plan policies that support your case and explain why. Recognise and respond to development plan policies that conflict with your views. Explain what other planning issues you believe should affect the decision.

Consider the public interest – explain how the development affects the local community as a whole. Avoid focusing on issues such as land ownership, the effects of the proposal on the value of neighbouring property, or the personal circumstances of the applicant.
Get comments in on time – you’ll generally only have three weeks to respond. If it isn’t possible to get your letter in before the deadline, send a short letter summarising your views within the deadline and follow it up later with more detailed comments. Late comments may be taken into account, particularly if your views don’t cause any delay in the decision, but you can’t rely on this. If you’re sending an email, remember to include your postal address.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has prepared a very useful template letter for planning objections, which is available on page 55 of this CPRE document. We are using this to draft template wording which you can include in the letter based on recent legal cases, including two cases that River Action was involved in. You should include our template objection wording in your objection if you are faced with a planning application for a large agricultural development which may lead to pollution of a river or watercourse. You will be able to find this template objection wording on this page soon.

4. Get local support

A planning committee should be making their decision based on whether the new development is in the best interest of the community. The more objections from the local community you can muster the better.

You may want to ask your neighbours views, share where and how to object on social media, organise a local meeting, or put up posters.

A petition signed by locals can also be helpful, although lots of individually signed letters tend to carry much more weight, in addition to objections.

Try our Campaign for Your River page for more ideas.

It may also be helpful to contact other groups with an interest in the proposal to find out if they’re planning to object. This could include:

Statutory consultees (for example, the Environment Agency (EA), Natural England (NE) or Natural Resources Wales (NRW));
The parish council – Parish or town councils, where they exist, are the lowest tier of local government in England. Around 30% of England’s population is governed by a parish council, predominantly in rural areas. Some urban areas, and notably Milton Keynes, are also parished. Parish and town councils are elected bodies and have powers to raise taxes. Their responsibilities vary, but can include provision of parks and allotments, maintenance of village halls, litter control, and maintenance of local landmarks;
Local organisations (local County Wildlife Trust or Urban Wildlife Group, RSPB office, CPRE group or, if particular species are likely to be affected, national organisations such as the Bat Conservation Trust or The Badger Trust); and other local river campaigning groups which you can find on our community map.
Your MP and community leaders. Your ward councillor* or MP may be permitted to speak at the decision committee or you might ask them to speak on behalf of local people at a meeting you organise, even if not on the committee.

You could also contact the local press to see if they will cover your objection or campaign as a story. Find tips for doing this on our Get Media Interest page.

*A Ward Councillor is a person elected in local elections to represent a particular subdivision of a local authority area known as a ‘ward’. It is very common for one ward to be represented by more than one councillor. Ward councillors are responsible for ensuring that the interests of all of the residents in their ward are represented at local authority level.

5. The local planning authority (LPA) decision

For most major cases (unless the Government ‘calls in’ the application so the decision is made at national level instead of by the local council, usually because the application raises issues of national importance), a planning officer will prepare a report summarising the application and representations received. This report will either recommend that planning permission be granted or refused. A final decision is then made by the LPA councillors. Don’t assume members of the committee will read your letter directly – it will usually be summarised as part of the Officer’s Report (OR) to the councillor’s planning committee. You’re legally entitled to look at the OR at least five working days before the councillors meet to make a decision. It’s important to take this opportunity as you’ll be able to see what information councillors are being given, and what decision the planning officer recommends they make.

For minor applications, a planning decision is usually delegated by the councillors to the chief planning officer. Different authorities have different arrangements for delegating decisions, but it is normal practice for council officers to take decisions on most minor applications.

You can write to, phone or meet councillors before the decision is taken to make sure your views are heard. It’s particularly important to contact the councillors representing the ward affected by the planning application. You might also want to suggest conditions that should be attached to any planning permission granted.

Pay special attention to the views of the councillor who chairs the committee and steer clear of party politics. Councillors are required to make planning decisions on grounds relevant to planning, not on party lines.

Do not approach individual councillors who sit on the planning committee and make the decision as any people on the decision panel who have received additional information or who have had conversations that the whole panel were not party to, will likely have to excuse themselves from voting on the decision as they cannot be impartial. If you want to contact anyone on the decision panel you must be sure to provide everyone on the panel with exactly the same information.

Speaking at the committee meeting where the application you’re interested in is being considered could make all the difference to your chance of success. Councillors tend to respond to strong local feeling. Some councils give the public the chance to speak for a few minutes at meetings to express their views.

Your ward councillor or MP may be permitted to speak at the decision committee or you might ask them to speak on behalf of local people at a meeting you organise, even if not on the committee.

A Ward Councillor is a person elected in local elections to represent a particular subdivision of a local authority area known as a ‘ward’. It is very common for one ward to be represented by more than one councillor. Ward councillors are responsible for ensuring that the interests of all of the residents in their ward are represented at local authority level.

After: Applicant's appeals

If a council refuses planning permission, then the developer can appeal that decision to the Planning Inspectorate. An appeal can be dealt with in one of three different ways, through written representations, an informal hearing or a planning inquiry. Whatever the format for the appeal, local residents and community can take part by putting in written representations or making oral representations at the hearing or inquiry (if there is one). Further guidance is available on the Government website here.

If planning permission is granted, there is no right of appeal for individuals and community groups. The only way to overturn the planning permission is through a judicial review in the High Court.

After: Judicial Review

Judicial review is a legal process where a court reviews the lawfulness of a decision made by a public body, such as a local planning authority or the Secretary of State.

A judicial review of the grant of planning permission is only possible if there is a legal issue with the grant of planning permission. Judicial review is not a chance to reconsider whether the public benefits of granting planning permission outweighed the impacts. You will need specialist legal advice to tell you whether there are grounds to bring a judicial review.

It is very important to move very quickly if you want to keep open the option of a judicial review, as there is a strict six week deadline from the grant of planning permission to put all of the documents into the High Court. If you want to explore this option you should try to get legal advice as soon as possible after planning permission is granted.

If you are considering legal action, we recommend seeking legal advice from law firms or organisations specialising in environmental and planning litigation to help determine your rights and options.

Relevant planning case law

There have been a number of judicial reviews in the last few years that have established important legal precedents for planning applications involving the protection of freshwater habitats, the implementation of legislation covering river basin management planning, the disposal of manure and the operation of Intensive Poultry Units (IPUs).

You may want to refer to them in your planning objection letter. You can do this by simply flagging the case names and references to your local planning authority (LPA) and ask them to consider them as part of the process or you can copy the summaries provided in the template objection letter. Either way, it will be helpful to provide links to the judgments to your LPA.

Harris & Anor v The Environment Agency [2022]

This case establishes that the EA must take appropriate steps to ensure that there is no possibility of the deterioration of protected habitats or significant disturbance of protected species.

Download the PDF

Finch v Surrey County Council [2024]

This case established that ‘downstream’ environmental impacts resulting from the end-use of a project (such as greenhouse gas or ammonia emissions) must be considered.

Download the PDF

NFU v Herefordshire Council & Ors [2025]

This case established that manure produced by intensive livestock production can be “waste” in law opposed to an agricultural by-product, with wide-ranging implications including the need for detailed plans at the application stage

Download the PDF

R (Caffyn) v Shropshire Council [2025]

This case establishes that planning decisions must consider the combined cumulative environmental impact of current projects along a river catchment before approving more polluting applications.

Download the PDF