REASON FOR THE DECISION
11. Circular 23/93 advises where an inquiry or hearing has not been
cancelled, an appellant’s failure to attend, or be represented at, an arranged
inquiry or hearing is likely to result in an award of costs against them, unless it
can be demonstrated, in any particular case, that there is good reason for not
making one.
12. In your submission as to why an award of costs should be made you
refer to Mrs Jones’ failure to comply with normal procedure. The only failure
in that respect I can find is Mrs Jones’ failure to attend the hearing – there is
no indication in the papers that any of the procedural deadlines for submitting
statements, etc were not met by Mrs Jones.
13. Although Mrs Jones did not attend the hearing that, in itself, did not
prevent decisions being taken on the appeals; those decisions were taken by
the Inspector in the light of, among other things, the statements submitted by
Mrs Jones in support her appeals and those submitted by the Council. I also
note from the Inspector’s decision letter that the hearing was used to clarify a
number of issues relevant to the determination of the appeals, so in that
respect I do not consider the Council’s attendance at the hearing to have
been wasted.
14. There is nothing in the papers before me to lead me to the conclusion
that, other than in respect of non-attendance at the hearing, Mrs Jones has
behaved unreasonably in her approach to the appeals. I consider her non-
attendance to have been unreasonable but, in view of the ability of the
Inspector to issue decisions on the appeals and the use of the hearing to
clarify relevant issues, I do not consider that her non-attendance at the
hearing caused your Council to incur or waste expense unnecessarily.
Consequently, I do not propose awarding your Council its costs of the
appeals.
FORMAL DECISION
15. For the reasons given above, and in exercise of the authority referred to
in paragraph 2 above, I hereby dismiss your Council’s application for costs.
No award is being made.
