Guidance

Appeal a discontinuance notice

How to appeal a discontinuance notice

Applies to England

When you can appeal 

Your local planning authority may send you a discontinuance notice about displaying an advertisement or sign on your house or building. 

You can appeal against a discontinuance notice if you own, rent or lawfully occupy the property or land it applies to. 

Before you make your appeal, you should enter into discussions with the local planning authority. We encourage you to continue these discussions, during the appeal. This will help to narrow the areas in dispute. You should make your appeal only when all else has failed. 

Anyone can comment on an appeal

There’s no fee for appealing. 

Deadline for appealing 

Your appeal must be received within 8 weeks of the date the discontinuance notice is served. 

Make an appeal 

You will need to complete an application form and send this by email to the Planning Inspectorate. You will be asked to provide details of why you are appealing and submit documents that support your appeal. 

To request a copy of the application form contact the Customer Support team: 

Online 

Use our contact form  

By phone 

Planning Inspectorate customer support team
Telephone: 0303 444 5000 
Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm (except public holidays) 
Find out about call charges

The completed form and supporting documents will need to be sent by email to:  ecat@planninginspectorate.gov.uk

Documents you will need: 

  • Your discontinuance notice.  

If you have any of the following documents you can submit: 

  • Changes to the discontinuance notice 

  • Other relevant correspondence with the local planning authority 

Preparing your documents 

You can submit the documents as any of these file types, as long as they’re smaller than 50MB: 

  • DOC or DOCX 
  • JPG or JPEG 
  • PDF 
  • PNG 
  • TIF or TIFF 

Make sure all documents are fully readable without any redacted text. 

Contact the Planning Inspectorate 

Online 

You can ask a question or make a complaint online

By phone 

Planning Inspectorate customer support team Telephone: 0303 444 5000 Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm (except public holidays) Find out about call charges

Updates to this page

Published 16 April 2026

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