Planning changes: an attack on local democracy

The rules relating to call-ins will change making it much more difficult – and in many cases impossible – for planning applications to be called in for a Planning Committee decision.

This attack on local democracy, and on residents’ rights to attend and speak at planning committee meetings for certain decisions, has been condemned by councillors from all parties.

Cllr Stuart Kelly, who chairs Wirral’s Planning Committee said, “This is a shocking attack on local democracy. Planning applications of any kind will have an impact on local communities. People used to have the right to attend a meeting and put their views across, but this has now been taken away by the Labour Government.”

“Council leaders wrote to the prime minister in July, when he took office and was promising more devolution. Unfortunately, his definition of devolution clearly doesn’t cover residents’ ability to influence planning developments that take place in their communities.

“Giving power to every postcode” was a prime ministerial promise that didn’t last a week.”

Planning applications will now be dealt with differently depending on whether they fall into Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 categories.

Applications in Schedule 1 will no longer be decided by planning committees. It will be impossible for ward councillors to call-in these applications. Instead they will be automatically delegated to planning officers on the council to determine.

Applications that fall under Schedule 1 include:

• Housing developments of fewer than 10 dwellings on sites smaller than 0.5 hectares

• Householder applications such as extensions and loft conversions

• Minor commercial developments

• Reserved matters applications

Applications that fall under Schedule 2 can still be called in for a planning committee decision provided there are strong planning grounds (based on economic, environmental and social impact) and the lead planning member (the chair of the planning committee) and the Council’s Chief Planner agree to the call in. The Chief Planner will be able to override the chair of the planning committee if they cannot reach agreement.

In both circumstances, it is still possible for residents and elected members to raise objections to planning applications via the normal route. This has not changed and these representations must be considered by the officers determining an application.