Agenda item

Chief Executive’s report CEX355.

(Enclosure)

Decision

The Constitution and Accounts Committee recommends that:

(1)       The planning panel pilot be terminated.

(2)       That the scheme of delegation to the Development Control Services Manager as set-out in pages 81 - 83 of the constitution be amended, the existing paragraphs numbered 1 and 2 (a) to (j) of  the Constitution shall be replaced with the following wording:

        All decisions, responses or determinations arising in relation to applications, approval of reserved matters, prior approvals, consents and consultations, submitted to or received by the Council in accordance with all Town and Country Planning, Listed Building and related or associated legislation (including subordinate legislation and any consolidation, re-enactment or amendment thereto) shall be delegated to the Development Control Services Manager, except in the following situations:

1.      Any application for planning permission which, in the opinion of the Authorised Officer is a departure form the Development Plan or an emerging replacement plan, and where the intended officer decision is permission/consent.

2.      Any application for planning permission, approval of reserved matters, conservation area consent or listed building consent where a Member of the Council has requested in writing to the Development Control Manager that the application be considered by Committee.  All requests shall be on the appropriate pro-forma and shall be submitted within three weeks of the circulation of details of the application.

                  The request shall include a statement outlining material planning reasons why the proposal needs to be considered by Committee, accompanied by a list of related Development Plan of National Planning Policies.  The Development Control Manager shall have the power to decline the request if in their opinion the reasons do not constitute material planning reasons.

                  All requests will be acknowledged in writing, and the reasons for the application being referred will be included in the officer report to the Development Control Committee.

3.      Any application or consultation or like matter where the Authorised Officer considers a decision should be taken by Committee.

4.            Any application submitted by or on behalf of a Councillor of the authority (or their spouse or partner) or by or on behalf of a member of the Council’s staff) or their spouse or partner).

5.      Any application submitted by or on behalf of the Council for its own developments, except for the approval of routine minor developments to which no objection has been received.

6.      In those cases where statutory time limits are involved for making decisions or taking action, for example in cases if agricultural buildings, demolitions, telecommunications determinations and notifications of works to trees in Conservation Areas, where non determination within a set period automatically gives consent; any objections received will be considered by the Authorised Officer and at their discretion efforts will be made to resolve the objection before the expiry period.  However, the existence of the objection will not alter their authority in these instances to make a decision.

(3)    The provisions of the constitution are clarified to ensure that no Committee established by the Council has the power to establish a panel for the purpose of advising officers on the exercise of authority delegated to them by Council.

Report CEX355 had been circulated with the agenda and concerned the planning panel, which was established as a pilot panel in 2003.  The report sought to regularise the position of the planning panel by either bringing it within the Constitution or terminating it.    The Chief Executive then outlined to members the legislation by which planning applications can be lawfully determined, the Development Control Committee in accordance with the powers granted to the Committee by Council or by a designated officer of the Council in accordance with powers granted to that officer by the Council.   It was important that any attempt to fetter the discretion of either the Development Control Committee, of the Officer in the exercise of their delegated authority could risk the Council being open to legal challenge and the Chief Executive recommended that the pilot be terminated.  Councillor Howard as the longest serving member on the Development Control Committee was then permitted to speak by the Committee and he referred to the old Development Control Committee meetings when due to the number of applications on the agenda, the meetings had been excessively long.  He felt that the previous officers in the planning department had done a good job and rather than disband the planning panel it should be fine tuned rather than reverting back to a Development Control Committee that went on until 7pm in the evening.   Some of the members of the Committee agreed with Councillor Howard that old Development Control Committees had been lengthy and maybe the panel should be terminated and the Committee split into north and south of the district.  Another member asked about the problems with the Planning Panel and the Chief Executive said that unfortunately there seemed to be a lack of clarity with regard to the remit of the planning panel and it’s intentions.  He realised that previously a lack of resources within the planning department had made the officers case loads heavy but resources were now in place to speed up the planning process and applications should be delegated appropriately.    A question was asked about the planning panel and its function to which the Chief Executive reiterated that there was no clear remit and in practice this could influence or fetter a decision made.

The Chairman said it was her understanding that the planning panel had been established as the Development Control Committee were reluctant to delegate a percentage of the applications to officers and the introduction of a pilot planning panel was seen as happy medium.  Another member of the Committee concurred with this assessment. The Chairman then referred to the Chief Executive’s report which said that no member of the Development Control Committee had expressed any objections to the proposal to terminate the planning panel when this had been raised at a Development Control Committee. 

It was suggested that the structure of the Development Control Committee needed to be looked at with the possibility of decisions being delegated to parish councils.  Other members of the committee disagreed with this stating that parish councils did not have the financial resources to carry this out or have the necessary training to determine planning applications.  The Chairman agreed that the work carried out by the Development Control Committee in determining planning applications was highly specialised.     She said that perhaps a way forward was that in the short term the recommendations within the report be approved with the Development Control Committee being asked to look at the issue and to come up with some recommendations which this committee could examine in the future.  Councillor Parkin, the current Chairman of the Development Control Committee was then permitted to speak.  He informed the committee that only those applications which had objections to them were dealt with by the planning panel or the Development Control Committee. The Planning Panel which met every week dealt with between 15 and 20 applications. He then referred to the issues that Parish Councils often raised when planning applications were being dealt with; often these matters were not planning related.   The object of the Planning Panel had always been to give full consideration to applications, often in more detail then that given at Development Control Committee as they looked at original plans rather than projected drawings. 

A question was then asked about the delegated authority to which the Monitoring Officer replied.  It was suggested that the issue of delegating authority to parish councils to determine applications should be looked at in the future and it was suggested that this be an item at the Stakeholders conference for parish/town council’s conference in December.   The Chief Executive confirmed that planning was an item on the preferred choices list for the conference.   

The Committee voted on the recommendation as outlined in the report and the Chairman suggested that the Development Control Committee be asked to look at the issue and come back to the Constitution and Accounts Committee with some recommendations on a viable way forward.  The recommendation was moved, seconded and agreed.