DESPITE concerns about planning appeals against refused solar farm schemes in Ludlow and south Shropshire, statistics suggest that most planning decisions are upheld.

A total of 128 appeals were made against Shropshire Council’s planning decisions in the last 12 months, but just 18% of these were allowed, latest figures show.

This means that the council’s decision and its interpretation of national and local planning policy was right in 82% of cases.

The number of appeals faced by Shropshire Council in the year 2015/16 was the third highest in the country, beaten only by Cornwall (213 appeals, of which 35% were allowed) and Kensington and Chelsea (148 appeals, of which 41% were allowed).

“We have faced what has seemed like an endless conveyor belt of planning appeals over the last year – something that didn’t abate even after the SAMDev plan was adopted in December 2015,” said Mal Price, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for planning.

“I’m extremely pleased, encouraged and reassured by our high success rate, and want to thank all of the council’s planning officers that have worked on defending this exceptionally high number of appeals, in addition to dealing with high levels of planning applications.

“When you see the percentage of appeals allowed in other areas, it’s clear that we have dealt with the surge in appeals extremely well and that we’re getting it right nationally.

“I hope this will help to get across the message out to potential – and especially speculative – appellants that the council wins the argument in the vast majority of cases.”