Smaller Planning Committees – A good thing… but harder work?

As you all know, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill contains a section that indicates that Planning Committees will be made smaller. There are rules on political representation (and sometimes that is bent) on Planning Committees but there is currently no hard and set rule on the size of Planning Committees. And they vary tremendously. Some councils have Committees that consist of four members and then some Councils have planning Committees where the entire Council sits on the Planning Committee. Most of them are usually somewhere between 11 and 15 members.

This number is set to reduce quite a bit and of course, the members (and any substitute members) will have to undertake accredited training, and the certificates will have to be posted on the Council website. The Bill also makes it very clear that if Councillors are NOT accredited, they WILL be precluded from taking part in decision making.

The training will no doubt be based in law and will steer members toward assessing applications on material grounds and policy compliance. In theory, members will scrutinise the recommendations made by officers and read AND understand the technical evidence and then make informed decisions.

Councillors on the Planning Committee will of course now be armed and trained to scrutinise the applications to a higher level and if you mix that in with the election cycle, you can see how the scrutiny on planning applications will intensify along the election cycle.

Democracy is an integral part of the planning process and just because the Government is streamlining things, doesn’t mean developers will be able to get permission without taking the public with them. As I explained above, the training will be a double-edged sword… If they turn your application down now, it is likely to be on material grounds that will stick.

But where does that leave their relationship with ordinary members of the public – you know, those annoying creatures called “voters”. We all know that if we are unhappy with our representation by our politicians, we will vote them out of office. We have seen quite a bit of that over the past few years with (mainly) the Conservative Party losing control of Councils and of course, last July the worst ever result for the Party at a General Election.

Logic dictates that the more public outcry the closer the scrutiny will be. Councillors will still be keeping one eye on the election cycle so you will have to ensure you take the public with you on your applications and get your message across otherwise you will end up with a refusal with teeth.

There is an expectation that a lot of applications will be going in over the next 18/24 months and lots of Local Plans being made over the next 30.

Now is the time to be on the front foot – engage in a meaningful way and make the most of the improved planning system. CALL ME!

Until next week,

Henry