Refused by Hillingdon Council? We read the decision notice, tell you honestly whether to appeal or resubmit, and prepare the drawings and statement that answer each reason for refusal on the Planning Inspectorate's terms.
Hillingdon Council granted 84% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 3 points below the 87% England-wide householder average. A large slice of the borough sits in Green Belt to the west, where extensions face the openness test rather than ordinary householder policy, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Edwardian (1901–1910), interwar (1918–1939) and postwar (1945–1970) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Class A and Class B set the thresholds — a rear dormer to 40m³ on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi or detached, and a single-storey rear extension to 3m on a terrace or 4m on a detached house — beyond which Hillingdon Council needs a full application. Hillingdon carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Old Uxbridge, Harefield Village and Ickenham Village remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Hillingdon is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Uxbridge (the town centre with its Old Uxbridge conservation area and Edwardian terraces), Ruislip (Metro-land semis around the Ruislip Village conservation area), Ickenham (a village green surrounded by interwar suburban housing), Harefield (a rural Green Belt village of cottages and detached homes), Northwood (affluent detached and semi-detached houses on leafy plots) and Hayes (mixed interwar and postwar estates near the former industrial belt) — these are the Hillingdon pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Old Uxbridge, Harefield Village, Ickenham Village, Ruislip Village and Eastcote. Hillingdon Council weighs each proposal against Hillingdon Local Plan and the HDAS: Residential Extensions SPD, where the design guidance polices the spacing and building line of Metro-land semis so paired houses keep their rhythm. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the 1930s semis and gabled roofs on the older village cottages, over interwar Metro-land semi-detached houses, Edwardian terraces around Uxbridge and West Drayton and detached houses and cottages in the rural western villages.
Two routes exist and they suit different refusals. A free-go resubmission — a fresh application within twelve months of the refusal, on the same site and in the same description — costs no fee and lets you change the scheme. An appeal keeps the scheme as refused and asks an Inspector to disagree with Hillingdon Council. Where the refusal reasons are about design detail that can be fixed, resubmission is usually faster; where they are about principle, an appeal is the only route that resolves it.
The decision notice is the brief. Each numbered reason cites policy and states a harm, and the appeal has to meet each one with evidence — sections showing daylight, elevations showing the relationship to neighbours, a site plan proving separation distances. Assertion loses appeals. Hillingdon is largely interwar Metro-land semi-detached houses, Edwardian terraces around Uxbridge and West Drayton and detached houses and cottages in the rural western villages, and hipped roofs on the 1930s semis and gabled roofs on the older village cottages shape what the Inspector will accept as characteristic here.
A large slice of the borough sits in Green Belt to the west, where extensions face the openness test rather than ordinary householder policy, which frequently appears in refusal reasons and therefore has to be addressed head-on. Ruislip Village and the Harefield and Ickenham conservation areas carry tight controls, and Article 4 directions on some of these older village streets strip out the permitted-development rights suburban owners otherwise assume.
We give an honest read of the decision notice first. An appeal is usually the right route where:
We take each numbered reason for refusal and answer it with a drawing or an evidenced statement — not with a restatement of the original application. That is the difference between an appeal that reads as a complaint and one that reads as a case.
Below is Hillingdon Council's real decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Hillingdon grants a fair share of householder applications, with Green Belt openness in the western villages and roof and spacing changes to interwar semis the recurring pinch points. Knowing what this authority actually refuses, and why, is the starting point for deciding whether to appeal or to redesign.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, rolling year). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
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Across Uxbridge, Ruislip and Ickenham, the appeals that succeed are narrow and evidenced. They show the daylight test drawn rather than described, they cite the Inspector's own decisions on comparable sites, and they concede the points that are not worth arguing so the case concentrates on the ones that are. An appeal that disputes every reason equally reads as unfocused and usually fails on the strongest one.
The design guidance polices the spacing and building line of Metro-land semis so paired houses keep their rhythm. Most householder appeals are decided by written representations, with the Inspector visiting the site unaccompanied. That makes the drawings the primary evidence: what is not on the page is not in front of the Inspector. We prepare the set on that basis, and where the honest answer is that the refusal was sound, we say so and redesign instead.
We prepare appeal drawings and statements across Hillingdon. A few of the areas where refusals come up most often:
Appeal drawings for Uxbridge — the town centre with its Old Uxbridge conservation area and Edwardian terraces — answering Hillingdon Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Ruislip — Metro-land semis around the Ruislip Village conservation area — answering Hillingdon Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Ickenham — a village green surrounded by interwar suburban housing — answering Hillingdon Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Harefield — a rural Green Belt village of cottages and detached homes — answering Hillingdon Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Northwood — affluent detached and semi-detached houses on leafy plots — answering Hillingdon Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Hayes — mixed interwar and postwar estates near the former industrial belt — answering Hillingdon Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Three responses to a refusal, with different costs, timescales and prospects.
| Route | Deadline | Typical timescale | Best where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Householder appeal | 12 weeks from the decision | About 8–12 weeks | The refusal turns on principle or a disputed harm |
| Section 78 appeal (other) | 6 months from the decision | Several months | Larger schemes, change of use, new dwellings |
| Free-go resubmission | 12 months from the decision | 8 weeks | The reasons are fixable design detail |
| Fresh application, redesigned | No deadline | 8 weeks | The scheme needs a different approach entirely |
Deadlines from the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 78, and the Planning Inspectorate's published appeal procedures.
A process built around the decision notice, because that is what the Inspector reads first.
Send us the decision notice and the refused drawings. We tell you honestly whether the reasons are appealable, whether a resubmission is faster, and how Hillingdon Council has fared on comparable appeals.
We gather the material that answers each reason — daylight geometry, separation distances, decided appeals on similar sites, and the relevant policies read in full rather than in extract.
We prepare the drawings the Inspector needs and a statement of case that takes each numbered reason in turn, conceding what should be conceded and evidencing the rest.
We lodge the appeal inside the deadline, respond to the council's statement, and revise free until the Inspector issues a decision.
Twelve weeks from the date on the decision notice for a householder appeal, and six months for most other section 78 appeals. The deadline is strict and the Planning Inspectorate will not accept a late appeal, so the first thing we do on a Hillingdon refusal is check the date and work backwards from it. Hillingdon Council is the decision-maker.
It depends what the reasons say. If they identify design detail you are willing to change, a free-go resubmission within twelve months costs no application fee and usually resolves faster. If they refuse the principle — that an extension of this type does not belong here at all — only an appeal settles it, because a resubmission would meet the same objection. This applies to your Hillingdon address specifically. Hillingdon Council is the decision-maker.
Nationally, a minority of householder appeals succeed, and the ones that do tend to be narrow, evidenced and focused on a single disputed harm. We look at how Hillingdon Council's refusals have fared at appeal and at comparable decisions nearby before advising, and we will tell you when we think the refusal was sound — an appeal with no prospect costs months.
The scheme itself cannot change on appeal — the Inspector determines the application as refused. What usually needs preparing is evidence: sections showing daylight, elevations showing the relationship to neighbours, and context drawings showing what already exists on the street. Those explain why the refused scheme causes no harm, without altering it. This applies to your Hillingdon address specifically. Hillingdon Council is the decision-maker.
In most written-representation appeals, yes — usually unaccompanied, viewing the site from public land and neighbouring property where access is arranged. That is why the drawings matter so much: the Inspector sees the site once, briefly, and everything else comes from the paperwork you submitted. This applies to your Hillingdon address specifically. Hillingdon Council is the decision-maker.
Only where the council has behaved unreasonably — refusing against its own officer's clear recommendation without evidence, or failing to substantiate a reason for refusal. Costs awards are the exception rather than the norm, and they are decided separately from the appeal itself. Where the grounds genuinely exist, we make the application alongside the appeal. This applies to your Hillingdon address specifically. Hillingdon Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Hillingdon appeal individually after reading the decision notice, because the work depends entirely on how many reasons are in play and what evidence they demand, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. The refusal review itself is free. Call 020 7864 7245 to start. Hillingdon Council is the decision-maker.
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