Decision details

Consideration of recommendations to the Cabinet from the Planning and Transportation Advisory Board of 3 March 2020 (Item PE 20/4) and Deferred from Cabinet of 3 June 2020 as per Cabinet Decision D200034CAB

The Cabinet resolved that:

The proposed changes to process, as set out in the report and detailed below, be approved:

(1)        from 1 September 2020, the Borough Council will not accept representations on applications received after the relevant 21 day period from any party not included in the statutory (technical) consultees definition (as set out at paragraph 1.2.9 of the report).  It is, however, recognised that there could be exceptions to this where fundamental matters are raised outside the period, which could leave the authority open to legal challenge, or raises new material considerations, or where the application has a large degree of complexity resulting in there being a significant amount of information to assess;

(2)        from 1 September 2020 the Borough Council will notify Parishes via the weekly list B and they will have 21 days from then within which to make representations (as set out in paragraph 1.2.12 of the report) and therefore the provision of hard copies of planning applications to Parish Councils will cease and they will be required to view relevant papers online (as set out at paragraph 1.2.12 of the report);

(3)        the savings derived from changes to how Parish Council’s will be notified will contribute to both the Savings and Transformation Strategy and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (as set out at paragraph 1.2.14 of the report);

(4)          from 1 September 2020, amendments to planning applications will not be accepted, other than where the changes sought were considered to be “de-minimis”, to correct errors or discrepancies identified by officers, or where a Planning Performance Agreement is in place that provides for such amendments to be negotiated between the parties (as set out in paragraph 1.3.7 of the report);

(5)          progress on the proposals will be updated at the meeting of the Planning and Transportation Advisory Board scheduled for 28 July 2020; and

(6)          the Borough Council will commence a programme of engagement with Parish Councils to offer technical advice and training, and to assess their individual needs, in order to remove barriers to viewing applications online.